Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 62:3 (Sep 2019)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

JETS 62:3 (September 2019) p. 599

Book Reviews

New Testament Lexicography: Introduction—Theory—Method. By Jesús Peláez and Juan Mateos. Edited by David S. du Toit. Translated by Andrew Bowden. Fontes Et Subsidia Ad Bibliam Pertinentes 6. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2018, xlii + 336 pp., $149.99.

For the first time, an English work fully presents and explicates the (Spanish) Córdoba-School Model (CSM) approach to NT lexicography. Similar to other methods of the past century, CSM seeks to fill a lacuna in the field. Around the turn of the 20^th century, Adolf Deissmann employed recently published papyri, inscriptions, and ostraca to show that the LXX and the NT primarily employ a popular colloquial form of ancient Greek and not a unique form of “biblical” Greek. According to Deissmann, steps needed to be taken to create a suitable NT lexicon by (1) contextualizing NT vocabulary within the contemporary linguistic milieu; (2) employing the latest research in linguistics and semantics; (3) presenting usage in contemporary sources; and (4) demonstrating sense relationships between words (pp. xxii-xxiv). James Moulton and George Milligan produced the first systematic contextualization of NT vocabulary by presenting usage in contemporary non-literary sources (1914–1929). Contemporaneously, Walter Bauer employed the lemma structure of Erwin Preuchen’s 1910 lexicon and incorporated many references from literary sources and to a lesser extent from non-literary sources (p. xxv).

The second half of the 20^th century would see scholars employ the latest research in linguistics and semantics as well as demonstrate sense relationships between words. In 1988, Johannes P. Louw and Eugene A. Nida applied modern (structuralist) semantic theory to the production of a lexicon that grouped words by sense relationships (p. xxv–xxvi). In the mid-1970s, Juan Mateos was commissioned to produce a Spanish bilingual dictionary of the NT, Diccionario Griego-Español del Nuevo Testamento (DGENT). In 1989, he published his Método de análisis semántico: Aplicado al griego del Nuevo Testamento (Córdoba: El Almendro, 1989). Nida’s idea “that many lexemes relate simultaneously to several semantic classes” heavily influenced Mateos (p. xxix). Heavily dependent on French and American structuralist theory, Mateos joined Nida’s idea of semantic classes with abstract lexical meaning (langue) and contextual meaning (parole), as well as componential analysis (Nida himself had not connected componential analysis with semantic classes). Mateos’s research group, Grupo de Análisis Semántico des Córdoba (GASCO), systematically applied his method to NT vocabulary, and since 2000 they have released five fascicles of preparatory semantic analysis covering You must have a subscription and be logged in to read the entire article.
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