Anyone with the slightest bit of experience doing word studies knows what a wearisome task the lexicographer has.
Today, as my mind wandered from the task at hand, I flipped through the front pages of Takamitsu Muraoka’s Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint. What verses did he choose to include at the end of his Introduction (page XVII)?
ἄνθρωπος γεννᾶται κόπῳ
Man is born to toil. (Job 5.7)χάριτι δὲ θεοῦ εἰμι ὅ εἰμι,
καὶ ἡ χάρις αὐτοῦ ἡ εἰς ἐμὲ οὐ κενὴ ἐγενήθη,
ἀλλὰ περισσότερον αὐτῶν πάντων ἐκοπίασα,
οὐκ ἐγὼ δὲ ἀλλ᾿ ἡ χάρις τοῦ θεοῦ ἡ σὺν ἐμοί.It is by God’s grace that I am what I am today, and His grace for me has not been wasted, but rather I toiled more than all of them put together, yet not I, but God’s grace which is ever with me. (1 Cor 15.10)
οὐκ εἰς κενὸν ἔδραμον οὐδὲ εἰς κενὸν ἐκοπίασα
I have not run in vain nor have I toiled in vain. (Phil 2.16)
I read these old, familiar words in a new light today — from the perspective of an accomplished, therefore wearied, lexicographer.
Brian W. Davidson 