Customer Reviews

Theological Dictionary of the New Testament: Abridged in One Volume

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This is the 10-volume "Kittel" dictionary minus the footnotes. The history of each word from the Greek New Testament is surveyed beginning with its Hebrew roots and usage in the Septuagint. Its usage is then decribed in secular Greek. Then its use is surveyed through the New Testament, grouped according to Pauline use, Johanine use, use in the Gospels, etc. In the process the reader can see the scope of meanings of a given word, and how those meanings developed, revealing the rich "flavors" attached to many Greek words.

Regarding the Nazi affiliation of its editor and some of its authors, we are all a mixed bag. Do we refuse to listen to music conducted by Herbert von Karajan because he was a Nazi, or of Strauss because he was a womanizer? As James Sveda said on a "Record Shelf" program on NPR years ago on this subject, "Perhaps the last word on this subject was said by a carpenter who lived two thousand years ago, 'Judge not, lest you yourselves be judged.'"

This is a wonderful resource, especially for those lacking the expertise (or the $$) to tackle the full 10-volume work.

Students of New Testament Greek should purchase this book. The one volume abridged addition is suited for quick word studies and for those looking for short background history on Greek phrases and words.

The outline of the book is easy to follow. Kittel looks at every major usage of the Greek word from its cultural setting to its biblical usage. While I concur that sometimes Kittel's theology is not orthodox, his background history of the Greek word and its root usage is worth the price of the book. True New Testament Greek students will still enjoy diving into the Greek text yourself without seeing Kittel's word studies but it is helpful to see how he compares to your own exegesis.

I find the "little Kittel" easy on the budget and shelf space. However, as one who has had Greek in seminary, I find the use of transliterations for all the Greek words to be a pain. I'd rather look up Greek in Greek than trying to figure out which English word equivalent is used or how they transliterate things.

The lack of any Strong's numbers or actual greek-text index detracts from this otherwise valuable resource. Besides that, it is a gold mine of exegetical insight.

The work is helpful. Some times the comments are basicically definitional while at other times the comments add nuances and flavors I would have missed.. E.g., when studying a book that discusses spirituyal warfare, one author--a scholar--suggested that Luke 10:18 implies that Satan left heaven mad at believers, and went on the attack. I had always been taught that he was forced out. Upon looking up the word translated,< FALL>, which is transliterated <PIPTO>, the point is made that the word typically meant to fall unintentionally. I thought anyone who storms out of a place angry does so intentionally; while anyone who is thrown out is typically suprised. I settled for the traditional view.

It does not always answer my questions so neatly, but I am happy with the investment. I am very cautious about giving the highest rating out to any thing or any one but Jesus.

It is relatively easy to use. I have used it less than 10 times but the table of Greek words and the table of English words seem to match up very well with those in Vine's expository. (I own the expanded edition and have not looked at the regular edition in some time, but I do not think it would be significantly different. I would expect the word usage/choice for the entries to be the same.)

Nazi Heritage: I almost past up the work for this reason. One does not need to be a Christian to do thorough exegesis especially as it relates to individual word meanings. Classical Greek scholars do exegesis quite well. Many Conservative Christian scholars quote them. Many are not Christians. One of my favorite philosophy instructors at school thought Christianity irrational. During our frequent discussions, his ability to interpret was at times astounding. (He was not a religous philosopher. It's a long story.) He could never accept the reality of the spiritual truths presented by Christ, but he could interpret well enough. The original authors of this work seem to do that well.

Of course, if someone doesn't want to pay for the big Kittel, the abridged volume is a good solution, so that he may have a general idea about the background of the Greek Biblical words. But sometimes you feel that it is a mere oversimplified, cloudy synopsis of the big Kittel in which you always feel anxious that something important may have been omitted. And this is true, since in my personal use of the abridged Kittel I found, many times, important things to have been disappeared. On the contrary, when I compare little Kittel with the Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament, always the second is proved better, having more specific and clear things to say, without taking much space. Now I have entirely stopped using little Kittel. Big Kittel is the best of its kind and the smaller Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament comes second.

I had seen the full ten volume set of this resource on the bookshelves of many pastors and of most of my professors at seminary. But the 10 volume set is very expensive, so I was glad when I discovered this one volume abridgement (a.k.a. "Little Kittle" or "Baby Kittle"). I purchased it when I was studying Greek at Denver Seminary, back in 1989.

I used it some during seminary and even after that in my personal Bible studies, but more so when I started working on my Analytical-Literal Translation of the New Testament: Third Edition (ALT). However, I probably turn to Colin Brown's 4 volume New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology (4 Volume Set) more than I do this "little Kittle." I probably am influenced by my seminary professors in this regard as they seemed to prefer Brown over Kittle.

The arrangement of this volume is by Greek words, but with the letters transliterated into English letters. For each entry, the main English word is given first in bold, then in brackets is a one word definition, followed by related words with the same format.

Then the main article begins with a discussion of the use of the word(s) in classical literature. Then there's a discussion of the usages of the word(s) in the LXX translation of the Hebrew OT, often indicating what Hebrew word the LXX was translating, the usage in latter Judaism is given, then is the discussion of the usage on the NT, followed by the usage in the Apostolic Fathers.

So lots of information is presented, and if you read through the entire article for a word, you will definitely gain full knowledge of the history and usage of the word. However, the thoroughness of this volume can sometimes be a drawback. It is just too much information and takes too long to read through. Most of the time when studying a word, you don't need that much background, so standard lexicons, like the ones on the BibleWorks software program, provide sufficient info.

But that said, I am glad I purchased this volume when I did. I didn't refer to it that often in my translation work, but on the occasions that I did, it helped to clarify how to translate a particular word.

This is an excellent resource for those who are not familiar with the Greek New Testament. What Bromiley has done is take the cream from 10 volumes and put it into one tremendous volume that has been an invaluable resource. This purchase was a gift to a dear friend in the faith and he is absolutely amazed at the riches in this work.

Terrance Kashian

This summation of Kittel's magnum opus is essential for non-scholars interested in Biblical exegesis. With sweeping overviews of the cultural and theological foundations of various words in the Greek New Testament, this is a homiletical version of the Oxford English Dictionary. Irreplaceable.

This is an excellent book for studying New Testament Greek words. Since Bible Translations are not inspired, we have to look deeper into the meaning of Bible words for the true Word of God.

I am happy with my purchase of the above titled order. It really looks like a new item that had never been used.