This book categorizes the connective words that indicate logical relationships between clauses:
G. K. Beale, Daniel J. Brendsel, and William A. Ross. An Interpretive Lexicon of New Testament Greek: Analysis of Prepositions, Adverbs, Particles, Relative Pronouns, and Conjunctions. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2014.
It mostly collates information from BDAG, Dan Wallace’s intermediate grammar, and Murray Harris’s book on prepositions. It’s small and short (96 pp.).
Endorsements:
- John Piper: “Your life depends on the meaning of little words. ‘Soldier get in your foxhole now!’ If you think ‘in’ means ‘out’ you’re dead. The stakes are even higher with ‘justified by faith.’ Or, ‘in this hope we were saved.’ Or, ‘created in Christ Jesus for good works.’ Or, ‘On account of these the wrath of God is coming.’ Beale’s Interpretive Lexicon of New Testament Greek is dedicated to the conviction that crucial and glorious things in scripture come into focus through rightly understanding the relationships signaled by these little words. This book wins my affection especially by correlating its definitions with the relational symbols I have been using for 40 years. The book will accomplish a high purpose if it merely heightens the Bible-reader’s expectancy that life-changing meaning is found not just in words and phrases, but in how words and phrases relate. Thank you, Dr. Beale and your team.”
- Thomas R. Schreiner: “As evangelical Protestants we believe in sola scriptura. We are committed, therefore, to discovering the meaning of the Scriptures, which means that we must study the Scriptures with intensity and rigor. This invaluable tool assists us in the task of careful exegesis and should be warmly welcomed.”
- Daniel B. Wallace: “One of the most challenging tasks in language acquisition is mastering the small words that are the warp and woof of an author’s thought. Frequently, these words reveal the logical flow of a discourse and are thus crucial for understanding a given text. Gathering up the data from reference works, principally BDAG, Greg Beale and company have laid out the material in a way that focuses on the various kinds of logical relationships intended by the author. Systematically labeling each word in this lexicon according to sound discourse analysis principles, they have produced a volume whose time has come.”
