The New International Dictionary of New Testament and Exegesis (NIDNTTE), ed. Moisés Silva, is a complete reorganization and revision of the New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology (NIDNTT), ed. Colin Brown. Brown’s edition was itself a translation, revision, and expansion of Theologisches Begriffslexikon zum Neuen Testament, edited by Lothar Coenen et al. This original German edition was produced by more than 70 German academics and pastors. The NIDNTTE therefore touts a respectable pedigree, with both of its predecessors becoming standard reference works for NT scholars.
The NIDNTTE makes several changes and improvements to Brown’s NIDNTT. The latter organized its material by concepts, labeled in English (e.g., “Atonement”). It then discussed various Greek words and concepts that fell under the English concept. The NIDNTTE, by contrast, reverts to an alphabetical order by Greek word. However, unlike Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (ed. Kittel), the NIDNTTE discusses a Greek word along with its cognates and other words that fall within its semantic field. Silva relied greatly on Louw and Nida’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains to achieve this goal. After listing all the words that fall within the respective semantic field, the information is linked to a “List of Concepts,” which is found at the beginning of each of the four content volumes.
For example, the entry for ναός (“temple, shrine, sanctuary) includes at the beginning its Greek number (??) G3724, some English glosses (“temple, shrine, sanctuary”), its cognates and words that fall within its semantic field (in this case, only νεωκόρος, “temple keeper”), and finally a list of concepts to which the words are connected in the List of Concepts (in this case, “Occupation; Temple”). When one flips to the List of Concepts at the beginning of the volume (the List is reproduced exactly at the beginning of all four volumes for easy reference), one looks for “Temple” and finds the entry “Temple, Tabernacle (cf. Feast; God; Office, Religious; Sacrifice),” with the Greek words that fall under within that semantic field (ἅγιος, εἰδωλεῖον, ἱερόν, ναός, and σκηνή). Most concepts include a dagger (†) before one of the Greek words to indicate the entry that discusses that concept most fully and contains the most bibliographic information. This method of organizing the material avoids confusion of lexicography and conceptual analysis that plagued TDNT and, to a lesser extent, NIDNTT.
The entries are consistently divided into three sections: Greek Literature, Jewish Literature, and New Testament. The Greek section covers classical Greek and extra-biblical Koine Greek references. Several examples are cited along with the meaning of the word in that context, but the coverage is not exhaustive. The effect of the Greek Literature section is therefore much like looking up an entry in Liddel-Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon, but a bit less comprehensive. The advantage over Liddel-Scott, however, is that NIDNTTE groups words by semantic field, so one is able to get a quick grasp on the basic extra-biblical meanings of the various words in that field. Of course there is no replacement for Thesaurus Linguae Graecae. NIDNTTE can save some time by giving the gist of a classical meaning, but if one were to consult TLG even briefly there would be no need to consult NIDNTTE‘s Greek Literature section. Of course, the point of a reference work like this is to save the student time, so in that sense it is quite helpful.
The Jewish Literature section usually covers the Septuagint, Josephus, and Philo. The Septuagint is generally covered comprehensively as the most important source, and Josephus and Philo are usually tacked on, but sometimes the latter duo are surprisingly omitted, even with common words (e.g., ἀνήρ, δόξα). A distinctive feature of this work is the exegetical aspect. For that reason, the Jewish Literature section includes information on the word or concept as it appears in the OT and in Hebrew literature, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls. For example, under δόξα, one subsection of the Jewish Literature section discusses the concept of “glory” in the Dead Sea Scrolls. But here some confusion arises: does “glory” here represent δόξα, or a concept expressed in Greek by δόξα (and perhaps other words in the same semantic field) and in English by “glory?” The Hebrew word appearing in these Dead Sea Scroll references is כָּבוֹד, but it is unclear whether the article is suggesting there is a 1:1 correspondence between δόξα and כָּבוֹד, or that the two words simply both express an aspect of the concept expressed in English by “glory,” or something else. The OT section is similarly confusing. Under γυνή, there is an extensive discussion of women in the OT, but what is the relation of this concept to the Greek word γυνή? So there is an obvious attempt to balance lexicography with concept analysis, thus aiding in exegesis, but perhaps the work would have been improved by making quite explicit in each entry how the Greek word or semantic field relates to the concepts discussed from Hebrew literature.
The New Testament section is fairly straightforward. It occupies the majority of space for most articles and surveys the use of the semantic field throughout the various corpora. Sometimes this section is organized into sub-sections that treat each corpus, while other times it is organized by topic or different meanings of the word(s).
Since these five volumes are a bit of a financial investment, a word about their build is appropriate. I am no expert in binding, but it does seem high quality and built to last. The pages are thick enough that they are quite opaque, allowing for very little of the text on the opposite side of the page and the text beneath it to show through. The result is that a go-to reference work in which one may spend hundreds of hours will read easily without much strain on the eyes. The hardcovers are slick and glossy with no dust jackets. The set takes up a good amount of space on the bookshelf, but that is the sacrifice to be made for the aesthetically pleasing product. For as large as they are, however, they are relatively light.
In conclusion, Silva has completed a rewarding reference work that will be of great use to many students, pastors, and even scholars. The NIDNTTE is a bit more comprehensive than the Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament and more linguistically sensitive than TDNT. The grouping of words around semantic fields will help exegetes understand words in relation to others in its semantic field, which could be of great use to those with a more linguistic bent. For example, this work could assist greatly in analyzing discourse or semiotic value. But for the standard NT student or scholar, this work provides exactly what is needed to understand the meaning of a Greek word and how it is related to various theological concepts that arise in Scripture.
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