Cynthia Westfall has the latest article in the Journal of Greco-Roman
Christianity and Judaism, “Blessed
Be the Ties that Bind: Semantic Domains and Cohesive Chains in Hebrews
1.1–2.4 and 12.5–8.” Based on her investigation, Westfall
concludes,
[A]n analysis of semantic domains provides a vital lens through which
we can view every text. At times, it seems that the [Louw-Nida] lexicon
does not do enough, and it is easy to find what appear to be
shortcomings in the failure to place some words in certain semantic
domains. For instance, the truncated classification of προφήτης under
‘Religious Activities’ does not remotely begin to describe the features
that ‘prophet’ shares with other lexical items. In this case, the
authors did not follow one of their guiding principles that a derivative
(e.g. προφήτης) should be placed as close as possible to its semantic
basis (e.g. προφητεύω). However, when the theory is understood, the
reader realizes that the entries and glosses are suggestive, and the
referential (meaning) range of any lexical unit can only be determined
by a careful and, above all, a coherent reading of the surrounding
context (216).
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