Customer Reviews

Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Volume VI)

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These old volumes [I own the 10 vol. set], and those that use it uncritically, suffer from several exegetical fallacies.

The first is known as the "root fallacy." The ancient origin of a word [100-5000 years earlier] has little if anything to do with its use or meaning in a particular text in the New Testament. This is also known in modern semantics as the 'etymological fallacy.'

Similarly, there is an enormous difference between diachronic [through time] linguistics and synchronic linguistics [same time]. The use of a word 100-5000 years earlier or later has little if anything to do with its use at a particular time by a particular person.

Another now classic fallacy has been called the "illigitimate totality transfer." That is when a reader of a particular N.T. text illigitimately imports or includes all possible uses found everywhere else throughout all time into a particular text in the N.T.

The reader is referred to excellent books on the subject by James Barr [who broke the grown in applying modern linguistics and semantics into Biblical exegesis] and more recently D.A. Carson ["Exegetical Fallacies"].