Lesson 9 | Vocab
You're Already an Expert
ἄρα ἕκαστος ἡμῶν περὶ ἑαυτοῦ λόγον δώσει. —Romans 14:12, SBLGNT
Every word in the verse above has multiple definitions in a lexicon (a Greek dictionary). How in the world can you translate it accurately, or even just read it accurately? How can you choose which meaning applies in a specific verse?
Linguists call this reality “semantic range”: no word has only one single meaning, but at least two, and probably more.
Take λόγος, for example, as it occurs in Romans 14:12. According to the top Koine Greek lexicon, BDAG, it has three basic meanings: “word,” “computation” or “reckoning,” and “the Logos.” But in individual situations, it can be translated “statement,” “question,” “prayer,” “speech,” “matter,” “settlement,” “reason,” and in many other ways!
Is this a hopeless situation? How in the world can you discern the meaning of λόγος in Romans 14:12?
Good news: You already have the skills to do this! When you listened to someone talk to you today, every word they used had multiple dictionary meanings, just like in the Greek verse above! And yet that didn’t throw you off.
For example, let’s say it's the middle of June; you’re eating breakfast with a friend, and they say, “Hey, did you hear that the Twins slaughtered the Cubs with 14 runs last night?” If you know anything about baseball, you know that “Twins” doesn't refer to a set of literal sibling twins, but to a baseball team in Minnesota. Same thing with the “Cubs”: your friend isn’t referring to literal bear cubs in the woods, but to an MLB team in Chicago. Therefore, you’re not shocked in thinking that two people brutally killed some helpless bear cubs! You don’t take the word “slaughtered” literally because you’re a savvy sifter of context, and so you know that the context of the word “slaughtered” is baseball.
You also don‘t wonder, ”Which meaning of ‘runs’ is my friend using here? Is he referring to the action of running rather than walking? Or of running in a race? Or is he talking about an amount of distance traveled? Or perhaps a skiing course?” No, you already know that the context is baseball, so a “run” refers to “a score made in baseball by a runner reaching home plate safely.”¹
And then when your friend stands up and say, “Hey, I’ve got to run home for a minute,” you don’t think, “Well, you’re not playing baseball—what are you talking about?” And you don't expect him to turn and sprint out the door and down the street! You know he’s using the verb in the colloquial sense “to make a quick, easy, or casual trip or visit.”²
That means that, right now, you are an expert at tuning in to the broader context of what a person is saying in order to effortlessly pick up the specific meaning of each word! If you were quizzed on this, each of you would get 100% (or nearly 100%) in every situation.
So you just need to transfer your intuitive skills to Greek, which will take practice. But at least it’s not a brand-new concept!
Let’s use those skills to help us with Romans 14:12. In the context of verse 10, we know Paul is talking about God’s action of judging us for our actions: “we will all stand before the judgment seat of God” (v. 10). He then supports this claim in verse 11 with a quotation of Isaiah 45:23, and then draws an inference from that with ἄρα: “so then....”
If we translate the other words, it will help us: “Each of us concerning himself λόγον will give.” This can’t mean simply “word,” which is the definition you probably know best. What will we “give” to God on the day of judgment?
The next step is to turn to a lexicon to help us, to see the options from which we should choose. BDAG’s second major definition of λόγος is “a formal accounting, esp. of one’s actions...,” which can be translated “account” or “reckoning.”³ The ESV translates the verse like this: “So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.”
But the more definitions you know of vocab words, the easier this process is. So keep up your work in memorizing as many definitions as you can in each vocab lesson! The more you know, the easier reading and translating will be.