Frederick W. Danker’s Legacy

Thursday, February 2 was a somber day for every student of New Testament Greek. Frederick W. Danker, arguably the world’s foremost Greek lexicographer, passed away at the age of 91.

For many, he will forever be known as the “D” in the acronym BDAG: Bauer, Danker, Arndt, and Gingrich. Published in 2000, and comprised of over 1,100 pages, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (known simply as BDAG) is the definitive dictionary for New Testament Greek.

While its predecessors (BAG, BAGD) were simply translations and adaptations of Bauer’s German dictionary into English, Professor Danker’s dictionary was, for all practical purposes, an entirely new work.

It’s said that for 10 years Professor Danker worked on BDAG 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. Because of Professor Danker’s investment of time and energy, we can study the word of God in the original Greek language, knowing that we have an authoritative and comprehensive Greek dictionary of the New Testament. May you rest in peace Professor Danker.

Along with BDAG, Professor Danker is also the author of a number of others books and articles, one of which is a commentary on 2 Corinthians in the Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament (15 vols.).