Greek Dictionary Introduction
This dictionary is a synthesis of many renowed scholars, both past and present. I have drawn much inspiration from men like Charles Swindell, Zola Levit, R. C. Sproul, Gary Hedricks, Adrian Rogers, and many others. These men are, and have been reliable, truthful, and loyal.
From the past, I drew on men like, Adam Clark, Matthew Henry, Rev. Robert Jamieson, Rev. Faussett, Rev. Brown, W.L.Roy, Thomas Williams, Edward Robinson, etc., all having inspired me through their many volumns of teaching. All are to be lifted high. To me, hero’s all, hero’s for upholding God’s truths.
Commentaries, dictionaries, lexicons, and family expositors are works completed by those whose love for Christ never failed. Workers in the faith. Many have passed away, yet the fruits of their hard work, and their loyality can be seen, remain with us till this day. I have tried to touch upon the many aspects of the Greek language used in Scripture. My deepest desire, is that every Christian in the world will unite, becoming one man under Christ. This can be accomplished by seperating truth from fiction. A failure to understand God’s instruction book can only lead to a tragic end.
We must not fail to understand that every word of Scripture is pointing to our eternal salvation. Therefore, to intentionally twist or mis-interpret the words and their meaning, will lead to destruction. To close your eyes, and blindly follow these cult teachers can be compared to a captain who puts his ship, on a course of destruction.
Today’s church has become unrecoginizable. The liberal beast has created its own Frankinstein monster, a monster whose life comes from the world.
Like Noah’s ark, the Bible will remain above the flood. Cults, with their false teachings, rewritten Bibles, indoctrinating techniques, all have been, and will continue to be exposed by the God’s Holy Spirit. Their fate is sealed. Lies heaped upon lies. Like an overloaded vessel, it first begins to list, eventually to sink. The Lord’s work, with His mighty word, commands fidelity. His word shall not fail, it rising far above the storms of the raging sea.
In this dictionary, I will put the words in alphabetical order. The numbers I use correspond to those in the Strongs Concordance. Much can be added to this work, nevertheless, I have tried to capture the essence and historic meaning of every word.
“All scripture,” as Paul observes, “is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17
There is some difficulty however connected with the study of Scripture in the English language. Sometimes the translations do not fully convey the sense of the original languages. Various circumstances combine to prove, that Hebrew is the original language of the O.T. and that it has never been improved or diminished by foreign idioms. Most early church leaders are of this opinion.
Hebrew was the language of Eber, from whom Hebrew was named, and was most likely the only language spoken before Noah’s flood. Genesis 11:1, “The whole earth was of one language and of one speech.” The Hebrew language does not appear to be adopted from any other language. Yet various languages of the present day, though they differ from each other, have many words of Hebrew derivation in them, retaining evidence of their origin. Arabic, Syriac, Chaldee, and Ethiopia, are dialects of the Hebrew.
In order to obtain a critical knowledge of the sense of Scripture, a correct grammar, and a complete and lucid dictionary are of indispensable importance.
What is Lexicography?
Lexicography is the science of words, that branch of learning which teaches and applies the proper signification and just application of words. Science is a systematic study concerning whatever object or subject that has been placed on the table.
A lexicon is a dictionary; a vocabulary, or book containing an alphabetical arrangement of the words in a language, with the definition of each, or an explanation of a words meaning.
A linguist, is a person skilled in languages. This term is usually applied to a person well versed in the languages. They are acknowledged as teaches of Languages. Languages such as Greek, Hebrew, English, French, German, etc. Most of the great Linguist have taught in the universities of the world.
To define a word, or the definition of a word, is to give an explanation of the signification of a word or term, or to give the idea of what a word is understood to express.
To translate: To translate means to interpret from one language into another language, words, phrases, etc. It is also to express the sense of one language in the words of another. The Hebrew Old Testament was translated into the Greek language more than two hundred years before Christ. Since then, both the Old and the New Testaments have been translated into most every language of the world. This work has been finished and completed by those who love God, and His Word.
Why do we need Lexicons and Dictionaries? Who are the people behind these works?
A full and scientific Dictionary and Lexicon of any language, embraces a wide field of research. The serious scholars who pursue the study of languages, both critically and philologically, will not rest until they have traced each word to its original origin, investigating the words original form and signification.
These lexicons and dictionaries establish the various forms and senses of words and phrases in which they have been used. Their study includes the way words have been used throughout different periods of history, the particular people with their dialects, and the manner and order in which all these are drawn from the original root usage. This step is very important in getting at the truth of a words meaning. Today, this step is sometimes left out, because of personal biases, lack of effort, or a rush to publish.
Last, but not least, these Lexicocographers observe the relationship to which the words and phrases stand to other words, both in construction, phrases, and the various modifications which it has undergone in these respects. When all these above points are properly made certain, and arranged in their own minds, then, and not until then, have these scholars, mastered the words in question. With the transcripts of their views, and with the necessary documentation, only then is the true lexicography of the word published.
This is justly termed the historological method of Lexicography. This has grown out of the general progress of the study of ancient literature and of relevant fields. It is linguistics, both historical, logical, and comparative.
Historical linguistics: This is to establish the sense of a word, phrase, or passage which is traced from the circumstances of time, place, and under which the word was
written, and its primary sense, as opposed to any secondary or even more remote sense.
Logical linguistics: Logic is the science of correct reasoning, implying correct thinking and legitimate inferences from premises, which are principles assumed or admitted to be correct. Logic includes the art of thinking, as well as the art of reasoning.
Isaiah 1:18, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD.” The Lord demands correct reasoning, correct thinking, and Holy principles in the study of Scripture.
Comparative linguistics: Is to estimate by comparison. Example, your body may be considered heavy when compared to a feather, but light when compared to a truck. To compare, is to set or bring things together in fact, or in contemplation, and to examine the relations they bear to each other, with a view to establish their agreement or disagreement. God’s word is truth, is light, is life, is the way.
The above proceed upon the supposition, that a language is in itself ancient and independent of every other language. Its words may therefore be traced to their ultimate roots within itself. This holds true in both the Greek and Hebrew languages.
Languages’ go through stages. There is the Golden age, this being the historical base, pure and in its prime. Because of wars, nations being conquered, the internal division of a country for political or religious reasons, the merging of a conquering armies with the conquered, the founding of new colonies, the developing of cities occupied by people from various nations. Uprooted cultures usually produce many changes in the original language.
Example; the language of the New Testament is the later Greek language. This later form of Greek was spoken mainly by the Jews. The Greek tongue that they spoke, was applied by them to subjects on which it had never been applied by native Greek writers.
So what was the character of this idiom spoken? It was Jewish terms, and words used in their religion and culture. An idiom meaning, the language of a peculiar group of people. Doctors have their own idiom or language. Computer people have their own language, for example; mouse, software, hard-drive e-mail, etc. This language is within the language spoken by the masses of people living within the community, but understood only by those within the profession.
Christianity had its’ own idioms concerning salvation. Idioms such as, faith in God, the virgin birth, Spiritual baptism, Son of God, Son of man, Lamb of God, resurrection, etc. It’s a language of hope, unheard of, and mis-understood by the outside world.
Therefore, the meaning of particular Greek words used by the religious Hebrews, was understood only by those who practiced that particular religion. The same holds true for Christians. A new understanding of words used by Greek writers, taken from old law, culture, and procedure. It was needed, and it had to be taken from the language spoken at that period of time, that language being Greek.
The writers of the New Testament, except for Paul, and Luke, were not well educated. Like the rest of the general population, they knew the Greek language only from their daily intercourse of, and with common everyday life. They having no formal education.
With these writers, the Hebrew element of that language was mingled within their form of daily talk, or idiom, and would naturally have great prominence in their writing. The differences lie in the turn of a thought, or in the thought itself, rather than in the expression. Even where a verse is modeled after the Hebrew, it is seen more in the construction and in the connection of words, both in phrases and sentences, than as affecting the true meaning.
Have you ever listened to a foreigner try to ask or give information? Many times their words take on a different form, and their construction of a sentence can hardly be understood.
The writers of the New Testament never had applied the Greek language to subjects on which it had ever been used by native Greek writers. No Greek writer, had ever written on Jewish affairs, or on Jewish theology, it ritual, or history. Example, in Hebrew, “to bless,” in Greek meant to, “speak well of.” So to say that God blesses His children, would not mean the same if we were to say that God speaks well of us.
Therefore the writers of the New Testament were to be the instruments of making known, a new revelation, this revelation being a new dispensation of mercy to mankind.
A new circle of ideas and new doctrines were to be developed. Gentile languages were not yet prepared for this new doctrine of salvation by grace. This poverty of language was to be done away with, by enlarging the signification and application of words already in use, rather than by the formation of new words.
The New Testament was written by Jews, aiming to express Hebrew thoughts, conceptions, and feelings in the Greek Language. Their idiom, consequently in soul and spirit is Hebrew; but in its external form was written in Greek. A Greek Lexicon of the New Testament is only a small portion of the Greek language as a whole.
When a good lexicon is used with the works of Philo, or Josephus the Jewish historian, they containing a treasure of illustrations in respect to the facts and antiquities of the New Testament. This material is of tremendous value to those who are students of the Scripture. A well researched lexicon will make clear the meaning of a word, showing its authority and standing in the Greek language. It serves to show in what relation each word stands to the Septuagint and Jewish writings.
No language can contain its own truth predicate. A predicate is something that is either affirmed, or denied of the subject in a proposition, or expression in logic. Why? Because if it did, then it would allow the formation of sentences such as;
“This sentence is false.” Clearly this statement is true if, and only if, the sentence is false, which is an extreme paradox. A paradox being a statement that seems to contradict common sense and yet is perhaps true.
Certain words in Scripture have caused a division in God’s church. This rift is caused by a few who chose to translate certain words according to their limited knowledge in the languages, or just blatant deception. Small cracks have developed into great chasms, or divisions. These rifts have isolated many Christians, and churches. The consequence can be the loss of a person’s eternal life. The blind leading the blind.
Use this work with other reliable and proven resources. Strong’s, Thayer’s etc.
A sample of the Greek & Hebrew Dictionary is as follows: Remember to check my abbreviation pages.
Faith: 3640. Greek is, oligopistos. adj. Of little faith, incredulous, Matt.6:30, 8:26, 14:31, 16:8, Luke 12:28. Not found in classic writers.
Faith: 4102 Greek is, pistis. Faith, belief, trust, pp. firm persuasion, confiding belief in the truth, veracity, reality of any person or thing.
Conquer: Conquering: 3528. Greek is, nikao. To be victorious, as,
a. Intrans. To come off victor, to prevail. Rom.3:4,
“mightest overcome when thou art judged.” quoted from Sept. Ps.51:4, where Heb. “clear,” to be pure. Seq. infin. Rev.5:5, “prevailed to open the book.”
b. Trans. To overcome, to conquer, to subdue, c. acc. Luke 11:22, “when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him.” Rom.12:21,bis. “be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Spoken of Jesus or His followers as victorious over the world, over evil, over all the adversaries of His kingdom, c. acc. expressed or implied. 1 John 5:4 bis. “Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world,” with verse 5. Rev. 3:21, 6:2 bis. “He went forth conquering, and to conquer.” Rev. 12:11, “they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb.” Rev.17:14, “the Lamb shall overcome them.” Perf. for present or future, John 16:33, “I have overcome the world.” 1 John 2:13-14, “ye have overcome the wicked one.” 1 John 4:4. Hence Part. absol. “the victor, he that overcometh, Rev.2:7-11-17, “to him that overcometh.” Rev.3:5, 21:7, “he that overcometh shall inherit.” Nom. absol. Rev.2:26, 3:12-21. Rev.15:2, “the victory over the beast.” Also of the adversaries of Christ’s kingdom as temporarily victorious, Rev.11:7, “beast — shall overcome them = (God’s two witnesses.)” Rev.13:7, “overcome them = (the saints.)”
Phillip LaSpino www.seekfirstwisdom.com