Greek vocabulary acquisition using semantic domains

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Jun 2003 by Wilson, Mark

Most of the glosses in Mastering New Testament Greek Vocabulary are identical with those given in the Greek-English Index found in volume 2 and are consistent with the definitions found in the lexicon. (Sometimes, it was discovered that the glosses in the Index were different from those in the lexicon.) Occasionally the glosses provided are different from those given by Louw and Nida. One example is (ProQuest Information and Learning: non-USASCII text omitted.) and (ProQuest Information and Learning: non-USASCII text omitted.), whose suggested glosses are "to translate, to interpret." However, neither the NRSV nor the NIV use "to interpret." Instead the preferred translations are "I mean" or "I translate." "Mean" is one of the words in the title of subdomain 33J, so this gloss was given for the two Greek words. Sometimes a problem arose with the suggested glosses, as with (ProQuest Information and Learning: non-USASCII text omitted.). "Adequate" and "sufficient" are usually suggested as glosses in other vocabulary guides; however, the former gloss is never used in the NIV or NRSV, and the latter is used only once. The glosses "many" (59A) and "large" (59B) comprise the preponderance of the translations of (ProQuest Information and Learning: non-USASCII text omitted.) in the NT; yet these are absent from other vocabulary guides. Another frequent translation is "worthy," not mentioned in Louw and Nida, so it was inserted in 65B: "Worthy, Not Worthy."

Trying to provide glosses for low frequency words was more difficult. For words used less than 10 times, Louw and Nida's glosses were checked with the NIV and NRSV translations (occasionally the NKJV too), so that they might be in conformity. Students are thus learning glosses from familiar translations that they will encounter in their reading and will use in ministry. Such repetition will aid in memorizing low frequency words, even those related to common cognate groups.

IV. A COMPARISON OF GREEK VOCABULARY ACQUISITION RESOURCES

A number of vocabulary acquisition resources are currently available for biblical Greek. While it is not possible to list them all, several representative ones will be discussed. Bruce M. Metzer's Lexical Aids for Students of New Testament Greek has been the standard for decades. Metzer provides 1,067 words based on word frequency to 10 usages, adding about 250 additional words in Part II where Greek vocabulary words are classified according to their root (cognates).36 Robert E. Van Voorst's Building Your New Testament Greek Vocabulary presents words used 5 times or more, first in cognate groups and then for those without cognates in an alphabetized list.37 Thomas A. Robinson's Mastering Greek Vocabulary is likewise organized according to cognate word groups. Individual words in the groups with high frequencies are marked 25 (25 or more usages) or 10 (10-24 usages). Memorization of these high frequency words is recommended.38 Warren Trenchard's Student's Complete Vocabulary Guide to the Greek New Testament presents its material in three main sections: cognate word groups, a complete frequency list of words, and proper names.39 This is the most comprehensive of the vocabulary guides, and provides a wealth of information on the vocabulary of the Greek NT. Bernard Brandon Scott's Reading New Testament Greek is also based on word frequencies to 10 usages. In Part 2 he usefully provides all the words used 9 times or less organized either by the Synoptic pericopae or the chapters of the NT.40