Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (10 Volume Set) Description:

Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (10 Volume Set) review:
5 stars (Helpful Work for Word Studies) - 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.
2 stars (Poor Semantics) - 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"].
4 stars (Kittel & Friedrich - An exhaustive work for linguistic use) - Gerhard Kittel's work has been a massive undertaken and has made good use of external evidence to assist in a well-rounded understanding of the times in which various biblical texts were believed to have been written. Unfortunately - as in any religion, many attempt to use this work in order to "prove" a particular point, thereby missing much of the beauty of etymology in the study of hermeneutics. TDNT is a wonderful work for any student of linguistics, regardless of religious orientation.