Any suggestions for a Greek-English/ English-Greek Dictionary?

[wisdomseeker]

Hello,

I am looking for a Greek-English/ English-Greek Dictionary for beginners, something similar to the Cassell's Latin Dictionary. Any recommendations?

Thanks

[Beorn]

Ancient Greek, Biblical Greek or Modern Greek?

[wisdomseeker]

Oh, great question! I am looking for a Koine / Biblical Greek Dictionary.

Janice

[tanya]

Well, I asked our Greek pro, Mitchell Holley, and this is what you got - probably more information than you could ever have imagined on this subject:

For a number of historical and practical reasons, Greek scholarship has not yet produced what we might call a "quality" beginners dictionary. While the standard scholarly dictionaries and lexicons can frighten the beginning student, the more approachable dictionaries tend to have a number of idiosyncratic problems. Therefore, although students can "get by" with one of the more approachable dictionaries, students will be best served in the long run if they can learn to use one of the more standard scholarly lexicons. Regardless, let me outline a few options below with some commentary:

Scholarly Dictionaries: These are mainly used by scholars and academics

• [BDAG] Bauer, Walter. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd Edition. -- This is the standard Greek lexicon for the study of the New Testament and the surrounding literature. An argument can be made that the second edition is better, and you can probably find it at a much more affordable price point.
• [LSJ] Liddell, H. G., and R. Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon. Edited by Henry Stuart Jones. 9th ed. -- While this is the standard Greek lexicon for the study of classical Greek literature, it can also serve students of the New Testament as well. This will be expensive and probably not worth it for the beginning student.
• [GE] Montanari, Franco. The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek. Edited by Madeleine Goh and Chad Schroeder. -- This is the modern rival to LSJ, but it is much easier to read than LSJ. It's the new kid on the block, but it could come to be the new classical standard.

Student Dictionaries

• Danker, Frederick William. The Concise Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. -- Danker edited BDAG above, and he has produced a concise version that includes all the words that occur in the New Testament. He even includes instructions on how to read an entry. It will be a bit more expensive than the other student dictionaries out there, and it's not that concise --about 400 pages.
• Trenchard, Warren C. A Concise Dictionary of New Testament Greek. -- This is a great and affordable option for those students of the Greek New Testament. And it is the only one that is truly "concise"-- about 177 pages. It does not have long entries, which may create confusion for some complicated words, but it will "get the job done" most of the time.

[wisdomseeker]

Wow! This is great information.

Thank you Tanya, and Mitchell for your thorough response. I am completely unfamiliar with Greek, but my daughter asked for a Greek Dictionary for Christmas. She is currently studying FFG and seems to be enjoying it. It appears it would be fine to wait a while before adding this to our library, but I appreciate the great options you have given me and the explanations behind them!

Thanks again,
Janice

[Jen_NH]

FWIW, I have the Liddell-Scott Lexicon when I was in college. It served me well for everything: philosophy, politics, poetry, and the New Testament.