Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words

Explaining Greek when you can use Greek is tricky enough. Explaining it when you can't is almost impossible.

It's no insult to say that this book takes on a difficult task -- trying to make clear what the words of an English translation of the Bible mean. To accomplish this task, it looks back at the Greek words -- but tends to use the English. Which, of course, means that there is confusion when different translations use different renderings of Greek words. This problem cannot really be solved.

The problem of bringing a theological axe to the task just makes things worse. There is a rather conservative feeling about this book. I don't know if that's really true -- but I didn't like it much. I want to interpret the text myself, and this show more does not help.

Of course, the real solution is ultimately to study the Greek directly. Learning Greek fluently is a difficult task -- but just learning enough to read the words, and getting a United Bible Societies edition, and a good Interlinear, and a copy of Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich-Danker, and an analytical lexicon, can have about 80% of the effect at the cost of maybe 20% of the work. It costs more than this book, but the results are a lot better.

And that's with reference to the Greek, which is the fuller part of the book. At least the Greek section can give you ideas. It's not a bad book; it's just that you'll want a lot more. The Hebrew part, by contrast, is so thin that it really isn't worth the bother. show less

Vine's is a classic reference of the Greek language that is indespensible for the biblical scholar. A bit dated, but cheap and good.

Additianal contributions by Merrill F. Unger and William White, Jr make this expository dictionary second to none. Whilst not covering every word in Scripture, it doesn't miss out many and what it does mention are covered in depth. I find it much more informative than Strong's or Young's concordances. I have had it and used it for many years and is the first book I reach for if I need to understand a biblical word in depth.

It is a book every Bible student needs in their library, - within easy reach.

The most affordable complete edition of Vine's famous Old and New Testament dictionaries available, this super value edition of a classic study resource helps those with limited or no background in Hebrew or Greek to study the meaning of biblical words in the original languages. A great resource for students, pastors, and anyone who enjoys biblical word studies. Serves as a dictionary, commentary, and concordance

Long the standard for NT Greek, this edition adds the OT Hebrew for the first time. It is dated, and Mounce's is better.

of Old and New Testament Words: With Topical Index

Dictionary