Mounce's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament Words

by William D. Mounce

Book Overview

For years, Vine's Expository Dictionary has been the standard word study tool for pastors and laypeople, selling millions of copies. But sixty-plus years of scholarship have shed extensive new light on the use of biblical Greek and Hebrew, creating the need for a new, more accurate, more thorough dictionary of Bible words. William Mounce, whose Greek grammar has been used by more than 100,000 college and seminary students, is the editor of this new...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0310248787
• ISBN13: 9780310248781
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: Zondervan Academic
• Length: 1344 Pages
• Weight: 2.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.5" x 9.1"
• Age Range: 18 years and up

Customer Reviews

Greek for the non-Greek--Awesome

This book is great for those who want get further into the original meaning of words without being a Greek (or any other ;-) scholar. Great addition to personal or group Bible study. Highly recommend this great value of a book.

Mounce's Completely Expositor Dictionary O/N Testament

Absolutely a must for the serious student of the bible. Can't say enough or reccomend it more highly.

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

Mounce's work is an excellent update and modernization of an expository. "Vine's for the 21 century" accurately describes this work, which clearly shows the use of each word in its different contexts. This is most helpful as authors use words are used differently over time. I highly recommend this book for anyone wishing to plumb the depth of the Bible.

Renn and Mounce

Late to arrive was Mounce's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words (Zondervan, though copyrighted 2006). This is very similar to a recently produced (2005), Vine-replacement dictionary from Hendrickson, Stephen Renn, ed., Expository Dictionary of Bible Words: Word Studies for Key English Bible Words Based on the Hebrew And Greek Texts. Both dictionaries do different things. For instance, Mounce has a Hebrew-English and Greek-English Dictionary in the back that gives a more substantive definition (with scriptural references) than Renn, who simply indexes each Strong's entry (original language) with its English counterpart. Thus, words not covered in Vine's (Renn) get some coverage in Mounce. In the body proper, however, Renn is more substantive: first, in that many entries have an "Additional notes" section that describes the transition of word meaning from the OT to the NT; second, Renn is more comprehensive in words covered. For instance, under "Sacrifice," the noun ?ag is also covered under OT words (though its primary referent is "feast"), while the adjective eidôlothyton is covered under NT words. However, Mounce has the advantage of deriving from the NIV rather than KJV. Sometimes this advantage becomes apparent, as when one reviewer of Renn decries a lack of entry for apostasia when, in fact, it could be found under "Forsake" when checking the index. However, in Mounce, apostasia (2x) is only found in the Greek-English dictionary in the back.

New and a bit Different, Get Both Mounce and Vine

Widely billed as the new Vine's for the 21st century, this book does have several advantages, perhaps the most prominent of which is that it is simply different. My own opinion is that anyone interested in seriously needing any dictionary of the Old and New Testament words needs both books. Neither of them is very expensive, and if you're looking at a particularily difficult translation, you just might want to look at both. Often two wordings of essentially the same definition of a word just might explain things a bit differently. (If they weren't different, there would be no need for a second dictionary.) One claim being made is that Mounce is more user friendly than Vine. Probably true if you are not already familiar with Vine's system. But if you've been using Vine's for years, you know it and how to use it, while you have to learn Mounce's. All in all, I find it impossible to say one is better than the other. Sometimes I like Vines, sometimes Mounce's. Get Both.