added to representative discussions on both sides, or to authors whose views may be regarded as supplementing or correcting those of Professor Grimm.
Convenience often prescribes that the archæological or historical facts requisite to the understanding of a passage be given the student on the spot, even though he be referred for fuller information to the works specially devoted to such topics. In this particular, too, the editor has been guided by the example of his predecessor; yet with the constant exercise of self-restraint lest the book be encumbered with unnecessary material, and be robbed of that succinctness which is one of the distinctive excellences of the original.
In making his supplementary references and remarks the editor has been governed at different times by different considerations, corresponding to the different classes for whose use the Lexicon is designed. Primarily, indeed, it is intended to satisfy the needs and to guide the researches of the average student; although the specialist will often find it serviceable, and on the other hand the beginner will find that he has not been forgotten. Accordingly, a caveat must be entered against the hasty inference that the mention of a different interpretation from that given by Professor Grimm always and of necessity implies dissent from him. It may be intended merely to inform the student that the meaning of the passage is still in debate. And the particular works selected for reference have been chosen—now because they seem best suited to supplement the statements or references of the original; now because they furnish the most copious references to other discussions of the same topic; now because they are familiar works or those to which a student can readily get access; now, again, because unfamiliar and likely otherwise to escape him altogether.
It is in deference, also, to the wants of the ordinary student that the references to grammatical works—particularly Winer and Buttmann—have been greatly multiplied. The expert can easily train his eye to run over them; and yet even for him they may have their use, not only as giving him the opinion of eminent philologists on a passage in question, but also as continually recalling his attention to those philological considerations on which the decision of exegetical questions must mainly rest.
Moreover, in the case of a literature so limited in compass as the New Testament, it seems undesirable that even a beginner should be subjected to the inconvenience, expense, and especially the loss of facility, incident to a change of text-books. He will accordingly find that not only have his wants been heeded in the body of the Lexicon, but that at the close of the Appendix a list of verbal forms has been added especially for his benefit. The other portions of the Appendix will furnish students interested in the history of the New Testament vocabulary, or investigating questions—whether of criticism, authorship, or biblical theology—which involve its word-lists, with fuller and more trustworthy collections than can be found elsewhere.
Should I attempt, in conclusion, to record the names of all those who during the many years in which this work has been preparing have encouraged or assisted me by word or pen, by counsel or book, the list would be a long one. Express acknowledgments, however, must be made to George B. Jewett, D.D., of Salem and to Professor W. W. Eaton now of Middlebury College, Vermont. The former has verified and re-verified all the biblical and classical
