Differences between first and third editions of Bauer's lexicon?

[daveleau]

Hi everybody!

I have the 1st edition of the Bauer "A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature." I bought it used for $25. I thought it was amazing compared to the $100+ edition I saw on Amazon (3rd ed). Are there major differences? JETS compares Bauer (3rd ed) to Louw-Nida, and claims Bauer is better. I have Louw-Nida (1988) but am not sure about how it stacks up to the 1st ed of Bauer. Can anyone help with this?

Thanks!

God bless you,
Dave

 

[justified]

I have never used Baur's first edition. I can tell you that the typesetting and leading on the 3rd edition is extremely good; they took full advantage of computer technology when they made the third edition; I definitely find it better than Louw-Nida;

 

[filosofer]

Two things to note:

1. Loux-Nida is not meant as a replacement for Bauer, they are complementary tools. Loux-Nida was intended primarily for translators to use. Thus, it is selective in the number of Biblical texts, and often offers possible translation concepts for languages that may not directly relate to the underlying Greek word/phrase. It is arranged by Semantic Domains, and hence the necessity of having a Biblical and Greek word cross-index; whereas BDAG is arranged by Greek word in a more traditional lexicon/dictionary format. I use them both frequently.

2. Bauer (1877-1960) was the German original.

1st English Edition: BAG, 1957; Arndt and Gingrich (students of Bauer) were the English translators and revisers of the 4th German edition (reflective of scholarship of the 1930's-1940's).

2nd English Edition: BAGD, 1979; Danker joined the team when Arndt died (1880-1957), thus his name was added at the end of the sequence in 1979 (reflective of scholarship of the 1950's-1960's).

3rd English Edition: BDAG, 2000; By 2000, Danker had extenseively reworked the translation of Bauer's work and incorporated more current material; thus his name was moved to second position in the 2000 edition. (reflective of the scholarship of the 1970's-1990's)

The second edition picked up many more references to (then) current literature, but did not incorporate some of the then unfolding and new linguistic work. BDAG does, although not as much as some had hoped.

The 1st edition could be used with care, and also realizing that nothing written or studied since ~1955 will be referenced.

I have the 2nd edition, and still use it. I had Danker sign it (his inscription to me: "To...., who loves the LOGOS behind and above all these LOGOI. With blessing for all you do in his service" --I know, personal note not needed, but I appreciate that he took the time to do so.)

In Christ's love,
filo

 

[Dmckay]

I have a rather wide collection of different Lexicons which I use all the time when trying to be as precise as possible in translation. The answer to your OP is really based in your view of the importance of etymology in translating Greek. The wider a spectrum and the older the examples of word usage can often give you a better idea of the flavor of the word the G-d directed the writer's to use in writing the New Testament.

If you are more of the school of thought that the words mean nothing apart from their context, then there is not much difference between lexicons except the number of examples they might give to back their rational for interpreting the word the way they did.