Esoteric words

[Notthemama1984]

So I am studying Colossians 3:15-17 and notice that βραβευω is only used this once in this passage and it got me thinking.

How does an expositor approach words that are only used once or very seldom? Obviously I have Lexicons and the such, but what else?

 

[Contra_Mundum]

The technical term for a single-use word is "hapax legomena."

I don't really think a great deal should ride on such words, certainly not in isolation. Sometimes they fit into a family of terminology, all on the same subject, so they may enrich our appreciation of the Bible's concept through its use. Generally, there's no special quality to these words. Look for related terms, or base/root words, to see if there's a way to understand the process that brought a certain range of meaning into existence. Just don't commit the "root-fallacy."

Sometimes, it appears as though an apostle "coined" a word. Scripture is literally the first time we find a few such in the history of extant literature from ancient times. In the end, it is an existing concept that demands words to describe it.

Welcome to the world of parsing-texts for a living.

 

[Wayne]

Just to add a small note to Bruce's comments, some of those words that are hapax legomena in the NT are found elsewhere in secular Greek literature.
The bigger problem comes with rare words in Hebrew, since there is little if any contemporaneous Hebrew literature. In the end, context is king.

 

[bpkantor]

A very helpful site for looking into other Greek literature is linked below. For example you can see the passage in Colossians, and then if you click on the word you can go not only to a few different dictionaries' definitions but also you can read other sources in Greek literature which use the same word. Hope this helps...

Colossians, chapter 3
Colossians passage with words clickable

Word Frequency Information
Perseus Search Results
examples of word in other Greek sources

God bless,
--Ben