Biblical Words and Their Meaning

AN INTRODUCTION TO LEXICAL SEMANTICS

Moisés Silva

REVISED AND EXPANDED EDITION

ZondervanPublishingHouse

Grand Rapids, Michigan

A Division of HarperCollinsPublishers

Biblical Words and Their Meaning: an introduction to lexical semnatics

Copyright © 1983, 1994 by Moisés Silva

All rights reserved

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan Publishing House

Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Silva, Moisés

Biblical words and their meaning: an introduction to lexical semantics / by Moisés Silva.—Rev. and expanded ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographies references and index.

ISBN 0-310-47981-9 (pbk.)

1. Bible—Language, style. 2. Bible—Hermeneutics. 3. Language and languages—religious aspects. I. Title.

BS537.S54 1994

220.6’6–dc20

94–22633

CIP

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

The appendix, “Distinguishing the Meaning of Greek Verbs in the Semantic Domain for Worship,” is a revision of an article published under the same title in Filologia Neotestamentaria 4 (1991). Copyright © 1990 by Karen H. Jobes. Used by permission.

Edited by Ben Chapman

Cover design by Louise Bauer

TO PAT

Contents

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

PREFACE

ABBREVIATIONS

INTRODUCTION

Barr, Linguistics, and Exegesis

Theological Lexicography

The Scope of Biblical Lexicology

Part One: Historical Semantics

1. ETYMOLOGY

Synchrony and Diachrony

Etymological Science

Etymology and Exegesis

2. SEMANTIC CHANGE AND THE ROLE OF THE SEPTUAGINT

General Considerations

Septuagint and New Testament

Using the Septuagint

3. SEMANTIC CHANGE IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

Classifying Semantic Change

Semantic Borrowing

The Structural Perspective

Part Two: Descriptive Semantics

4. SOME BASIC CONCEPTS

Denotation

Structure

Style

5. SENSE RELATIONS

Relations Based on Similarity

Relations Based on Oppositeness

Componential Analysis

6. DETERMINING MEANING

Context

Ambiguity

Synonymy

CONCLUSIONS

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN SEMANTICS

APPENDIX

Distinguishing the Meaning of Greek Verbs in the Semantic Domain for Worship

INDEX OF AUTHORS AND TITLES

INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND GLOSSARY

INDEX OF GREEK WORDS

INDEX OF HEBREW AND ARAMAIC WORDS

INDEX OF BIBLICAL REFERENCES

Preface to the Second Edition

Encouraged by the favorable reception that this book has enjoyed, the publishers and I have agreed that a new edition would be welcomed by biblical students.

Alterations in the body of the work are limited to minor corrections, since further research into lexical semantics has not led me to make significant changes in the interpretation or presentation of the data. Moreover, substantive criticisms have been few, such as the concern that my treatment of Septuagintal issues is somewhat ...