edited by Horst Balz and Gerhard Schneider,

translated by Virgil P. Howard, James W. Thompson, John W. Medendorp, and Douglas W. Stott. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1990-1993. German original, Exegetisches Wörterbuch zum Neuen Testament. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1978-1983.

Review by Michael Morrison

This three-volume, 1600-page reference work is midway between a one-volume lexicon (e.g., BAGD) and a lengthy theological dictionary (e.g., the ten-volume TDNT). It gives definitions for all words, including proper names, occurring in the UBS³/NA²⁶ text. (BAGD includes more words; TDNT and NIDNTT omit words with less theological significance.) The list price for Balz-Schneider is $150; Christian Book Distributors offers the set for $100.

Greek words are listed alphabetically, with cross-referencing given for words discussed under another entry (cognates are sometimes grouped into one article). Declension and gender is indicated for nouns and adjectives. A transliteration is given, and the most common translation equivalents (glosses) are given at the top of each article.

An asterisk indicates that all NT occurrences are mentioned within the article. All the short articles seemed to have an asterisk. The short articles often quote portions of the verses in which the word is found; there is sometimes a reference to noncanonical literature or modern reference works that have more information on the word.

Longer articles usually begin with an outline, then a bibliography (mostly German works), a discussion of frequency in different sections of the NT, an analysis of the ways in which the word is used, with comments on exegetical difficulties and theological significance. The background of the word in the LXX and other literature is discussed when deemed relevant. Brief histories are given for persons and places.

EDNT does not spend too much time rehearsing the history of each word in Greek and Semitic backgrounds, since the meaning of a word must be determined by its use in its own context. Toward this end, different sections of the NT are analyzed in different sections — i.e., the way a word is used in the pastoral epistles is not assumed to be the same as it is in Romans, or Revelation. Although each article begins with the oldest strata and moves to later strata, an evolutionary transformation is not assumed.

Longer articles include huios (10 pp.), christos (7), nomos (6), anastasis, dikaiosyn_, ekkl_sia (5), agap_, hagios, anthr_pos, apostolos, baptiz_, basileia, glossa, graph_, dikaio_, euangelion, z_, thanatos, i_sous, ioudaios, k_rysso, laos, and ouranos (4 pages each).

This work originated in Germany, and 89 percent of the 175 contributors were from Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. There were a few contributors (most with German surnames) from the United States (4), Denmark, Israel, Netherlands, Norway (2 each), Australia, Belgium, France, Italy, Nigeria, Poland, and Sweden (1 each) (none from the United Kingdom!). The predominance of Germans is understandable for the German-language production, but it weakens the claim that the work represents "worldwide cooperation" (1:vi). A scan through the first names of the contributors shows only three to five women. The work claims to be ecumenical, unlike TDNT. Balz is Protestant and Schneider is Catholic, but I have no statistics on the contributors' ecclesiastical affiliations.

Each volume has a separate list of contributors, with no indication of which or how many articles each contributor wrote. A survey of vol. 2, which covers about 2000 Greek words, shows 410 signed articles. Of those, Balz wrote 32 and Schneider wrote 23. The next most frequent contributors were Wolfgang Schenk (12), Walter Radl, Alfons Weiser (11 each), and Hans Hübner (10). Most of the 114 contributors wrote two to four articles, often for words related in meaning. The survey through vol. 2 also found six articles written by two people not in the list of contributors.

I was not able to find out anything about the translators, except that in 1996 three of them were members of the Society of Biblical Literature. Their role in the work was apparently translation only — no edits or updating was involved. They are mentioned in the forward, not on the title page, not even in the library cataloging data.

EDNT was written to supplement TDNT in three ways: 1) Since the beginning volumes of TDNT were written before World War II, its bibliographies and some of the conclusions need to be updated. 2) TDNT was so large that many pastors did not invest time and money in it. EDNT was written to be more accessible by being shorter, yet still long enough to discuss theological concepts. 3) TDNT had been severely critiqued (most notably by James Barr) for its linguistic fallacies, such as transferring a meaning determined in one context into the word's use in a different context. Much of TDNT's length was taken with lengthy surveys of etymology and historical use — often with assumptions of history-of-religions evolutionary development — but of limited linguistic value. EDNT greatly abbreviated its coverage of lexical backgrounds and concentrated on the words' use in the NT itself.

How well does EDNT achieve these purposes? The bibliographies are of course updated from TDNT, and this is very helpful, but vol. 1 is still dated back to the late 1970s. For vol. 2 and 3, Balz and Schneider updated the bibliographies to 1990. The primary shortcoming of the bibliographies for English users is the predominance of German-language works cited. Most pastors will not be able to pursue these studies even if they had the time and interest. Admittedly, it would have taken considerable time and extra expense to develop English-language bibliographies for this work.

EDNT is more accessible to pastors than TDNT and BAGD. The English is clear (I can judge only the English, not the accuracy of the translation); the print is very legible in most sections (some sections are set in smaller type). All Hebrew words are transliterated, and volume 3 has an English index showing all the Greek words (with page numbers) that are sometimes translated by each English word. However, many pastors (I assume that the majority do not like to use Greek even if they are able to) would still have difficulty in using this work, since entry headings are the only place that Greek words are transliterated. Cross-references and phrases within the text of the articles are in Greek letters, sometimes without translation. This should not detract from users who have studied some Greek, for they will appreciate the clear English, the background information, the statistical data, the analysis of each word's use in each section of the NT, and the comments on exegetical and theological matters.

Linguistically, the work is an improvement on TDNT, though it has not pleased all reviewers. The book claims that "newer linguistic viewpoints are taken into consideration, but no definite system of linguistic theory is presupposed" (1:vi). I am not competent in this area, but will report what others have said as a caveat: David Hill says that "word" and `concept' are "still used interchangeably on a number of occasions" (ExpTim 102:344) and Andreas Köstenberger says "the meaning of individual words at times blends with connotations...to the extent that denotation and connotation are not adequately distinguished" (JETS 39:142).

Some linguistic flaws are probably inevitable in a work of this nature. Since the vast majority of these scholars were probably schooled with the German original of TDNT, it is likely that its influence will occasionally peek through, even if special linguistic advice were given to them in preparation for this dictionary. It is not easy to keep quality consistency when more than 100 contributors are involved in each volume. Some of the articles were no doubt assigned to scholars of particular expertise with the assigned word; other assignments were probably made to fill "holes" in the research (some contributors worked only on words beginning with the same Greek letter); Balz and Schneider probably filled most of the holes themselves. If they tried to do all the work themselves, we would probably still be waiting for vol. 3.

Overall, EDNT is an excellent resource, since all NT words are included, and most entries mention all NT uses. Clear definitions are given, and the discussion is in clear English, not cryptic abbreviations. Longer articles group the uses into manageable size for explanation and commentary. No dictionary is perfect, and more exegetical work is always needed, but no one has time to research all the words we deal with. EDNT provides a very helpful resource for deepening our investigation of the text.