A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature

In this edition, Frederick W. Danker's broad knowledge of Greco-Roman literature, as well as papyri and epigraphs, provides a more panoramic view of the world of Jesus and the New Testament. Danker has also introduced a more consistent mode of reference citation, and has provided a composite list of abbreviations to facilitate easy access to this wealth of information.

Perhaps the single most important lexical innovation of Danker's edition is its inclusion of extended definitions for Greek terms. For instance, a key meaning of "episkopos" was defined in the second American edition as overseer; Danker defines it as "one who has the responsibility of safeguarding or seeing to it that something is done in the correct way, guardian." Such extended definitions give a fuller sense of the word in question, which will help avoid both anachronisms and confusion among users of the lexicon who may not be native speakers of English.

Danker's edition of Bauer's Wörterbuch will be an indispensable guide for Biblical and classical scholars, ministers, seminarians, and translators.

In short, the 2nd edition is a monument of scholarship, a rock of scholarly solidity and clarity that has not been suddenly rendered obsolete. One's enthusiasm for shelling out for the 3rd edition is a bit dampened when you consider several issues:

(...)To conclude, there is obviously an audience who needs to have the absolute most current edition: namely, scholars who are going to follow up all the references in the bibliography, who need to have the published record (the 3rd edition) of every iota of deepened reflection reached by Danker. But the 2nd edition is not just a book now useful only to "unscholarly" readers. It was published in 1979, making use of Qumran material, etc., and it continues to offer its users a lucid and authoritative account of the NT lexicon.

I am not a NT specialist, but a Classics professor. I think my demands for quality philological information with which to read the NT are pretty high. The 2nd edition meets them to my satisfaction. I'd not be distressed to have only the 3rd edition--on the whole, its advantages outweigh its annoyances--but there is certainly not $50 worth of difference in the value of these editions.


Positive Review of the 3rd edition of Bauer   December 13, 2000
 21 out of 22 found this review helpful

Like the the biblical pearl of great price, the only advice I can give is,"Go sell all that you have" and get this newest edition of the venerable Bauer, Arndt, Gingrich, and Danker! This edition includes much longer definitions rather than the simple glosses that have been used by the previous two editions. The typography has been greatly improved and it makes this edition much more user-friendly. Frederick Danker is worthy of the kudoes that will be coming his way in his magisterial revision of this indispensable tool for any minister, seminarian, theological student, professor, teacher or Biblical scholar. This will be standard Greek lexicon for the next two decades. Even if you have BAGD, you'll want ot get this edition (now known as BDAG). The improvements alone are worth the purchase price.


Confirmation of proper usage is very important   June 10, 1998
 18 out of 25 found this review helpful

If it were not for this lexicon the serious, but "linguistically challenged" scholar, would have a hard time understanding the correct usage of just about any Koine Greek word. By comparring the usage in the NT and the writings of Josephus and early Christian writers, we can discern how the early church used a certain Greek word, in fact, what the Apostle's intended to convey in their writings. No other lexicon in existance does this. If there is such a thing a "truth" this lexicon shows what the early church taught that it was. Throw out all of your other lexicons and buy this one.


This is the most authoritative lexicon for NT Greek   September 30, 1997
 16 out of 18 found this review helpful

This is the standard Greek lexicon for New Testament studies. I find that it takes longer to use than Louw and Nida, but gives a more mature understanding. It gives many more examples, and also points out grammatical features of the words, which can be extremely helpful. This lexicon does not attempt to give you a full dictionary definition; instead, it tries to give you the data to allow you to develop your own. For a comparison of the standard lexicons for New Testament Greek, see "http://www.mindspring.com/~jwrobie/littleGreek.html"


an essential   September 19, 2002
 15 out of 18 found this review helpful

With the exception of the short dictionary at the back of my Greek New Testament, no tool has been of more use in my study of Biblical Greek than this lexicon.

More than just a dictionary, the strength of this lexicon is that it gives both specific meanings of words in context as well as a knowledge of the shadings of meaning that a word carries throughout the Bible. This moves the student from a general grasp of a thing to an attentiveness to the precise way God has made himself known--there is nothing quite like it.

As other reviewers have noted, this is probably not a good place for beginners hoping to do a word study to jump in. I'd recommend Vine's for that. I also recommend that those serious in the study of Biblical Greek use this book in conjunction with a Greek New Testament, Mr. Mounce's Grammar (his lexicon is handy too), and Zerwick's Grammatical Analysis. This broad group of tools should help keep you from falling pray to a single interpretive spin.

Don't let its size and price scare you off--this book is essential for the student of Biblical Greek.