Concordance to the Greek New Testament

Concordance to the Greek New Testament. By William F. Moulton and Alfred S. Geden. Edited by I. Howard Marshall. 6th ed. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 2002, xxi + 1121 pp., $100.00.

Over one hundred years after the publication of the first edition in 1897 and almost twenty-five years after the appearance of the previous (fifth) edition in 1978, Howard Marshall has prepared the current sixth edition of this time-honored concordance (M & G) in order to "fit it for another century of usage" (p. v). In the preface Marshall praises the work for its compact size, its categorization of the usage of many words, its inclusion of all significant textual variants (including those added in UBS4), and its citations of OT passages cited in the NT. The most significant difference between the fifth and the sixth edition is that the fifth edition, like its predecessors, used the Greek text of Westcott and Hort (WH) as the base text, while the new edition adopts UBS4 (essentially identical with NA27) as its base.

Overall, the editorial changes made in the present edition are to be welcomed, particularly the substitution of UBS4 for WH as the textual base. The typeface is still a bit antiquated, though, especially the capitalized Greek headings for each word. Moreover, it must be noted that an exhaustive Greek concordance of the Greek New Testament based on UBS4 already exists: The Exhaustive Concordance to the Greek New Testament, edited by John R. Kohlenberger III et al. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995; ECGNT). By comparison, I much prefer the more contemporary page layout of Kohlenberger's concordance. Also, the new M & G costs over twice as much as the ECGNT. Another helpful feature of the ECGNT is the listing of word frequencies, which is not provided in the new M & G edition. Neither is the word listed put in bold font.

A comparison of the entry for [lambda][alpha]o[final sigma] (listed in Moulton and Geden as AAO'[Sigma]) in these two concordances maybe helpful. ECGNT provides the total number of occurences (142) but not M & G. ECGNT lists nine categories of usage, including number of occurrences and actual references for each category; M & G breaks down word usage into five categories but without frequencies or verse listings. M & G does, however, provide information regarding OT citations, even printing the Hebrew text, a feature not included in ECGNT. The listing of a given reference in ECGNT is generally more extensive than M & G. While the former includes the six preceding and subsequent words, M & G, while including an about equal number of preceding words, often (but not always) cuts off the reference immediately after the word in question. Finally, M & G provide more text-critical information.

The two advantages of the new M & G, then, are more information on OT citations and on text-critical matters. However, these are in my view more than outweighed by the significantly greater utility of ECNGT (not to mention the price), both in terms of frequency listings, more user-friendly type font and layout, and more extensive and explicit categorization of word usage. For these reasons I do not expect the sixth edition of Moulton and Geden to become the first choice of North American students and scholars of the NT, despite its welcome improvements over previous editions. Some scholars may prefer the new M & G owing to the above-mentioned advantages, though they may well choose to supplement ECGNT by using other tools on the use of the OT in the NT and on text-critical matters.

Andreas J. Kostenberger Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC

Copyright Evangelical Theological Society Mar 2003
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