This classic resource, known affectionately as the NIDNTT (The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology) is available online with all 3 volumes (representing the full set) on the same link. This resource is fully accessible with no time limit and no requirement to borrow and allows copy and paste function. Many of the articles are by highly respected Biblical scholars and it follows that their discussions of the Greek words are often more robust than you will encounter in the typical Greek lexicon.
- The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology (NIDNTT) - Colin Brown, general editor - A-F
- The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology (NIDNTT) - Colin Brown, general editor - G-P
- The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology (NIDNTT) - Colin Brown, general editor - Pri-Z
- Index to articles in Volume 1 - Example: See "Abolish, Nullify, Reject" Note page 73 on right side. Scroll to page 73 beneath the book for discussion by respected theologian J I Packer.
- Index to articles in Volume 2 - Example: See "Gall, Poison, Wormwood" Note page 27 on right side. Scroll to page 27 beneath the book for discussion by respected theologian Leon Morris.
- Index to articles in Volume 3 - Example: See "Pride" Note page 27 on right side. Scroll to page 27 beneath the book for discussion by a respected theologian.
- Index to Greek Words - Note this index includes all Greek words in Volumes 1-3. The major definition of a Greek word is identified by BOLD FIGURES. For example, note the Greek word "abba" which is found in two volumes - Vol. 1: 614, 619-621 Vol. 2: 868, 870f. Open Volume 1 and go to page 614 for the major article on "abba." Then open Volume 2 and go to 870f which is also in bold, marking another discussion of "abba." It takes a little practice but it is worth it as the articles are generally excellent.
- Glossary of Technical Terms - Alphabetized list of very helpful descriptions of many terms ranging from ALLEGORY to CANON to DUALISM to EXEGESIS to GNOSTICISM to HERMENEUTICS to TALMUD, etc. Take a moment to look over this list as it is very edifying if you are not familiar with these terms. Here is an example of the entry for Allegory...
Allegory (Gk. allégoria; Lat. allegoria, allegory, lit. speaking otherwise than one seems to speak). The figurative representation or interpretation of one thing under the image of another. In theology it denotes a method of interpreting Scripture which sees in the text a meaning other than the apparently intended or historical one. The technique is found in pre-Christian literature, and was practised by the Alexandrian Jew, Philo (c. 20 B.c.-c. A.D. 50) to interpret the Law in terms of the Hellenistic philosophy of his day. It was taken over by the Christian Platonic theologians of Alexandria, Clement (c. 150—c. 215) and Origen (c. 185—c. 254). The latter sought to follow a threefold method of interpretation, seeing in most passages a literal, a moral and a spiritual meaning. Thus the story of the blind men at Jericho (Matt. 20:29-34) is not only literally true. According to the moral meaning, our eyes must be likewise opened by the Word of God and we must come out of our Jericho. According to the spiritual meaning, the two beggars represent Israel and Judah, whilst Jericho is the world. Traces of allegory have been detected in the NT in Gal. 4:21—26; 1 Cor. 9:8 ff.; and Heb. 7:2, though some regard these passages as examples of —> typology. The validity of any instance of allegory or typology turns on whether there are genuine similarities between the passage in its original intention and its spiritual interpretation. Otherwise allegorical interpretation reads into the text meanings which cannot be supported, at the expense of the intended meaning.
Related Resources:
- Greek Word Study tools online - Multiple Greek Lexicons, some fully accessible, but most need to be borrowed at no charge from archive.org
- Greek to me - similar list
PREFACE (from the NIDNTT) (Excerpt) - Bury yourself in a dictionary and come up in the presence of God. This improbable-sounding piece of advice of the late Sir Edwyn Hoskyns contains a wisdom born of experience. At first sight a dictionary may appear to contain nothing but a mass of antiquarian information. But to those who know where and how to look, the forbidding mass of material is not a barrier between the individual and real life but a bridge to a richer appreciation of it. It is when we ask, “What is the writer getting at?”, “Why did he say this?”, “Why did he put it like that?”, “What lies behind that remark?”, that we begin to see things in a new light. A theological dictionary is not a collection of prepackaged sermons or an anthology of predigested devotion. It is more like an invitation to join in the collective enterprise of quarrying and building. (The picture itself is not without affinities with the apostle Paul’s picture in 1 Cor. 3:10 ff. of Christian work as a collective building enterprise.) It is as one quarries among the mass of data and tries to build something out of it that the data become alive. What was perhaps previously flat and featureless takes on new perspective and meaning. One can go even further. The great revivals of the Christian church have come about when some individual here and there has been grasped by something that his predecessors and contemporaries have taken for granted without stopping to ask why it should be so. Perhaps the greatest need for the church in the last quarter of the twentieth century is for men to stop, to ask themselves this question as they study the Bible, and then to translate their answers into action.
NIDNTT - (adapted from the introduction) The entire work is divided into articles under English titles, arranged in alphabetical order. Note that each article has a separate author (including respected writers like J. I. Packer, D. A Carson, J. A. Motyer, F. F. Bruce, et al - see list of contributors). These articles in turn contain one or more studies of the relevant terms in New Testament Greek which have been grouped under key words. Thus, the article on Baptism, Wash is divided into separate studies under the key Greek words baptizō, louō and niptō. For the sake of easy reference the key Greek word is bolded at the head of the appropriate study thus: βαπτίζω. In each case there follow the principal forms of the associated Greek words and their cognates which are given in both Greek letters and transliteration together with their basic dictionary equivalents....Each article is divided into three main sections denoted by the letters CL indicating discussion of the word in classical and secular Greek, OT in Old Testament usage, and NT dealing with New Testament usage. They are arranged as follows:
CL Discussion of the word in secular Greek. Uses of the word are illustrated by references to classical literature, inscriptions and papyri.
OT Discussion of the word in the Old Testament. The language of the church of the New Testament era was Greek, and the Old Testament Scriptures used by the church were largely the Greek translation of the Hebrew known as the Septuagint (LXX). The discussion is therefore based on the terms as they occur in the LXX and other Greek versions. But throughout these are compared with the corresponding Hebrew words of the Hebrew Masoretic text. This second section also includes discussion of terms in rabbinic writers, Philo and Josephus, and the discoveries at Qumran
NT Discussion of the word in the New Testament, noting statistical occurrences of the word, its uses in relation to its background, and the specific emphases of individual writers and writings. Bibliographies are appended to all major articles.
EXAMPLE OF FIRST ENTRY
καταργέω G2934 (ED: NOTE THESE ARE NOT STRONG'S NUMBERS BUT "Goodrick-Kohlenberger" numbers - SEE DESCRIPTION) (katargeō), abolish, nullify.
CL Derived from argos, meaning inactive, idle, unused, useless, katargeō is a late word which in secular Gk. means to render inactive, put out of use, cancel, bring to nothing, do away with. It is used in a wide range of contexts.
OT It only appears in the LXX in 2 Esdr. [Heb. Ezra] 4:21, 23; 5:5; 6:8, where it signifies hindering or interrupting the rebuilding of the temple.
NT Of its 27 occurrences in the NT, one is in a parable (the non-fruiting fig tree of Lk. 13:7 “cumbers” the ground in the sense of making it unproductive); the rest are in theological contexts, all but one being in Paul, who uses the word mainly to express the following:
1. God’s putting out of action through the cross and the parousia destructive powers which threaten man’s spiritual well-being. These include (a) world-rulers (1 Cor. 2:6: possibly human, but more likely demonic); (b) the law which set Jew and Gentile at enmity and made both guilty before God (Eph. 2:15, cf. Rom. 7:2, “discharged from the law of the husband”); (c) the body of sin (Rom. 6:6: Paul means “our sinful self”, “the sin-dominated nature that was ours in Adam”); (d) the “man of sin” (2 Thess. 2:8); (e) all forces hostile to Christ at present (1 Cor. 15:24), including death, already brought to nothing in principle through Jesus’ resurrection (1 Cor. 15:26; cf. 2 Tim. 1:10). The writer to the Hebrews adds (f) the devil (Heb. 2:14).
2. God’s removing and displacing what is transient to make way for better and abiding things. Already displaced through the coming of the new order in Christ is the “glory”, such as it was, of the Mosaic dispensation (2 Cor. 3:7, 11, 13), and the “veil” which was on Jewish hearts like Paul’s (2 Cor. 3:14). Being displaced, as God’s plan goes forward, are “things that are (sc., something)” in this world—though grammatically neuter, the phrase denotes people (1 Cor. 1:28). Due for displacement through the changes which the parousia will bring are (a) the belly and food (1 Cor. 6:13: our present bodies will be changed), and (b) prophecies and conceptual knowledge (gnōsis), which, being at best modes of partial and indirect apprehension, will be left behind, as a grown man abandons childish things, when we apprehend God directly by sight (1 Cor. 13:8, 10, 11).
3. Man’s attempts, witting or unwitting, to contradict and cancel those principles and powers of divine working which bring salvation. To preach justification by circumcision, and to seek justification by works of law, is not only to cancel the offense of the cross (Gal. 5:11), but also to be “severed” (cancelled, discharged) from Christ and his grace (Gal. 5:4). But as faith does not cancel the law (Rom. 3:31), nor the law the promise (Gal. 3:17), nor Israel’s unbelief God’s faithfulness (Rom. 3:3), so the gospel of grace will stand, despite man’s efforts to nullify it, and in the end it will triumph.
Though katargeō is elusive in translation (AV renders it in 17 different ways, RV in 13), its basic meaning of rendering something inoperative is clear and constant.
το βδέλυγμα τῆς ἐρημώσεως G1007 G2247 (to bdelygma tēs erēmōseōs), the abomination of desolation.