New Testament Lexicography

Book excerpt: This text brings together in one volume two previous books that laid the groundwork for the construction of the entries in Diccionario Griego-Español del Nuevo Testamento (Greek-Spanish Dictionary of the New Testament), namely Método de Análisis semántico aplicado al griego del Nuevo Testamento (Method of Semantic Analysis applied to the Greek of the New Testament) and Metodología del Diccionario Griego Español del Nuevo Testamento (Methodology of the Greek Spanish Dictionary of the New Testament), by Juan Mateos and Jesús Peláez. In the introduction and first part of the text, the concepts of dictionary and meaning are defined and a critical analysis of the dictionaries of F. Zorell, W. Bauer (Bauer-Aland) and Louw-Nida is conducted. Their methodologies are examined with the purpose of then presenting a method of semantic analysis and the steps for establishing the semantic formula of the various classes of lexemes, which functions as the basis for determining lexical and contextual meaning. In the second part the necessary steps for composing the dictionary's entries are proposed. The text concludes with an analysis of related lexemes in order to demonstrate the accuracy of the suggested method. For the first time, a carefully developed method of semantic analysis and the corresponding methodology are presented before the construction of the dictionary's entries.