TDNT

What TDNT is

TDNT is a theological dictionary of New Testament Greek in ten volumes, edited by Gerhard Kittel and, for the later volumes, Gerhard Friedrich, with the English translation by Geoffrey Bromiley published by Eerdmans beginning in 1964. It is organized as a series of extended articles — often long, scholarly essays — on the significant words of the Greek New Testament. Each article traces its word through Classical Greek, the Septuagint, Hellenistic Judaism, and the New Testament, and reflects at length on the theological ideas the word carries. It is built for deep word and concept study, not for quick reference, and it is the work that defined the genre.

The set is also available in a single volume — Bromiley’s 1985 abridgment, universally called "Little Kittel" — which condenses the ten volumes to their essentials while preserving the structure and much of the substance. The abridgment is how most readers first encounter the work, since the full set is a major investment. TDNT assumes some familiarity with Greek to yield its full value, and it is widely available in Bible software such as Logos, where the articles cross-link to the Greek text and a reader’s other resources. It remains a historic reference, consulted with the awareness of the methodological debate it provoked.

Why scholars still consult Kittel

The single biggest reason to open Kittel is depth. On a significant New Testament word, a TDNT article can run for pages, gathering the word’s use across Classical Greek, the Septuagint, Hellenistic Judaism, and the New Testament, and reflecting on the theology it carries with a thoroughness few references attempt. For a pastor or scholar who wants to go as deep as a single word allows — to understand not just its meaning but the freight of ideas it has carried — TDNT is still a place New Testament scholarship keeps returning to, a landmark precisely because of how much it tries, and often manages, to say.

That same depth is why TDNT must be used with a particular discipline. James Barr’s 1961 critique made the lasting point that a wordbook can blur the line between a word and a concept — between what a Greek term means and the theology of the passages where it appears. The right way to read Kittel is as a rich account of the ideas associated with a word across its history, not as proof that all of that theology is present in any single verse. Context determines the sense; the article supplies the background and the range. Read that way, the depth that drew the criticism is exactly what makes the set valuable.

Article-length depth: the theology behind a word

The defining feature of TDNT is the scale of its articles. Where a lexicon gives a word a gloss and a few citations, Kittel gives a significant word an essay — tracing it through Classical Greek, the Septuagint, Hellenistic Judaism, and the New Testament, and discussing the theological ideas it carries. The article on a major term can be a small monograph, written by a specialist and dense with reference to the sources. For the fullest account of a single New Testament word, few references come near it.

For study and preaching, that depth is the draw and the thing to handle with care. A TDNT article gives a teacher a rich sense of the world a word inhabits — the ideas it has carried, the contexts it has lived in, the way the New Testament authors received it. The right use is to let that richness inform a careful reading of the passage, where context decides which sense is operative. Treated that way, the essay-length treatment is a feast; treated as proof that every idea in the article is present in a given verse, it overreaches — the line the classic critique drew.

"Little Kittel": the whole work in one volume

In 1985 Geoffrey Bromiley, who had translated the full set into English, produced a one-volume abridgment — the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament in a single book, known to everyone as "Little Kittel." It condenses the ten volumes to their essentials, keeping the structure of the articles and much of their substance while shedding the most technical apparatus and the bulk. For a reader who wants the heart of TDNT without the cost or shelf space of ten volumes, it is a remarkable amount of the work in an affordable form.

This is the version most readers should start with, and many never need to go beyond. At around $60 it is within reach of any student or pastor, and it delivers the characteristic TDNT experience — the historical tracing of a word, the theological reflection — in a single book rather than a library. Specialists will eventually want the full set for its exhaustive detail and footnotes, but for the everyday work of going deep on a New Testament word, "Little Kittel" captures what made the original a landmark, and it is one of the better values in original-language reference.

The Barr critique and using word studies well

No account of TDNT is complete without the methodological debate it provoked. In 1961 the scholar James Barr published an influential critique arguing that theological wordbooks — TDNT chief among them — tended to commit what later came to be called "illegitimate totality transfer": loading the full range of a word’s meanings onto every occurrence, and blurring the distinction between the meaning of a word and the meaning of the passage it appears in. The argument did not dismiss the work; it reframed how careful readers should use it, and it changed the practice of word study across New Testament scholarship.

The practical upshot for a reader is worth holding onto. A word’s sense in a given verse is fixed by context, not by the sum of everything it has ever meant. A TDNT article shows you the range and the history — the menu of senses and the ideas associated with the word — and your job is to let the passage decide which sense is on the table. Read this way, with the Barr critique as a guardrail rather than a verdict, TDNT remains immensely valuable: a deep account of the background a word carried, used in service of the text rather than substituted for it.

Pricing

Where TDNT falls behind

The classic critique. James Barr’s 1961 argument that wordbooks like TDNT over-load single words with theology — blurring the meaning of a word with the meaning of its passages — is the thing every user has to keep in view. It does not make the set unusable; it makes it a reference to read with discipline, as a rich account of a word’s background rather than the final word on what any one verse means. Context, not the article, carries the meaning of a passage.

The over-reading temptation. The very depth that makes TDNT valuable invites "illegitimate totality transfer" — importing a word’s whole history into a single occurrence where only one sense is in play. The guardrail lives in how the reader uses the work: the article gives the range and the history; the passage decides which sense is operative. The danger is real precisely because the articles are so rich, and it asks more discipline of the reader, not less.

Dated scholarship. The articles were written across the mid-twentieth century, and the study of New Testament Greek has advanced since — newer evidence, refined method, more recent wordbooks built with the Barr critique fully absorbed. TDNT remains a landmark, but a reader should treat its judgments as a historic contribution to weigh against current scholarship, not as the last word.

Requires Greek, and time. The articles are organized around Greek words and assume real familiarity with the language, and they are long scholarly essays rather than quick lookups. A reader without Greek is better served, for fast word study, by an English-keyed tool like Strong’s. Even for a reader who has the Greek, consulting an article is a project, not a glance — the depth is the cost as well as the reward.

The full set is a major investment. Ten volumes new run $400 or more, far beyond what most readers will spend on a reference they consult occasionally, which is exactly why the one-volume abridgment and the digital edition exist. The used market helps for those who want the whole work on paper, but the complete print set is more than the everyday task usually requires.

TDNT vs. NIDNTTE vs. BDAG

Different tools, related jobs. TDNT and NIDNTTE are both theological wordbooks — extended articles tracing the development and theology of New Testament Greek words — while BDAG is a lexicon, an alphabetical dictionary that defines the vocabulary of the New Testament and gives the senses for each word. The wordbooks synthesize and reflect at length; the lexicon defines and cites. For looking up what a word means, BDAG is the direct tool; for the deep history and theology of a word, the wordbooks go where a lexicon does not.

Between the two wordbooks, the difference is era and temperament. TDNT is the older, monumental landmark — vaster and richer in theological reflection, but written across the mid-twentieth century and the original target of the Barr critique against over-reading word histories. NIDNTTE is the more recent set, completed in 2014 under a single editor with that critique absorbed. TDNT is the deeper and more historic; NIDNTTE is the more current. Many readers value TDNT for its sweep and NIDNTTE for its up-to-date judgment, and a serious library holds both.

For a reader deciding where to spend, BDAG plus a wordbook covers most needs — BDAG for the definition, a wordbook for the depth. If the budget allows only one wordbook, "Little Kittel" at around $60 is the most accessible way into the genre. Scholars caution against treating any of these as a license to read every shade of a word into one verse; used with that restraint, lexicon and wordbook complement each other.

Alternatives to TDNT