Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 46:1 (Mar 2003)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

JETS 46:1 (March 2003) p. 125

Book Reviews

Concordance to the Greek New Testament. By William F. Moulton and Alfred S. Geden. Edited by I. Howard Marshall. 6th ed. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 2002, xxi + 1121 pp., $100.00.

Over one hundred years after the publication of the first edition in 1897 and almost twenty-five years after the appearance of the previous (fifth) edition in 1978, Howard Marshall has prepared the current sixth edition of this time-honored concordance (M & G) in order to “fit it for another century of usage” (p. v). In the preface Marshall praises the work for its compact size, its categorization of the usage of many words, its inclusion of all significant textual variants (including those added in UBS4), and its citations of OT passages cited in the NT. The most significant difference between the fifth and the sixth edition is that the fifth edition, like its predecessors, used the Greek text of Westcott and Hort (WH) as the base text, while the new edition adopts UBS4 (essentially identical with NA²⁷) as its base.

Overall, the editorial changes made in the present edition are to be welcomed, particularly the substitution of UBS4 for WH as the textual base. The typeface is still a bit antiquated, though, especially the capitalized Greek headings for each word. Moreover, it must be noted that an exhaustive Greek concordance of the Greek New Testament based on UBS4 already exists: The Exhaustive Concordance to the Greek New Testament, edited by John R. Kohlenberger III et al. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995; ECGNs). By comparison, I much prefer the more contemporary page layout of Kohlenberger’s concordance. Also, the new M & C costs over twice as much as the ECGNT. Another helpful feature of the ECGNT is the listing of word frequencies, which is not provided in the new M & G edition. Neither is the word listed put in bold font.

A comparison of the entry for λαός; (listed in Moulton and Geden as ΛΑΟ᾿Σ) in these two concordances may be helpful. ECGNT provides the total number of occurences (142) but not M & G. ECGNT lists nine categories of usage, including number of occurrences and actual references for each category; M & G breaks down word usage into five categories but without frequencies or verse listings. M & G does, however, provide information regarding OT citations, even printing the Hebrew text, a feature not included in ECGNT. The listing of a given reference in ECGNT is generally more extensive than M & G. While the former includes the six preceding and subsequent words, M & G, while including an about equal number of preceding words, often (but not always) cuts off the reference imme...