Actually, the Latin usage derives from the Greek, and PERSONA does
originally serve as a translation of PROSWPON in that original sense of
"mask" (although the Greek word focuses on what the spectator SEES, while
the Latin word focuses on what the actor SPEAKS THROUGH. In Greek, TA TOU
DRAMATOS PROSWPA = Latin DRAMATIS PERSONAE
There is also the NT word PROSWPOLHMPTHS somewhere, I think, meaning
"respecter of persons" in precisely the sense required here in Gal 2:6: one
who pays special attention to the appearance of an individual--or to the
ROLE he/she plays in a social context. Yes, it IS the dramatic usage of the
term PROSWPON that is involved here, I believe, although one may question
to what extent the user of the term is aware of the fact that a dramatic
term is being used here.
The other passage you asked about this morning, Jonathan, also derives from
the Greek stage: the verb hUPOKRINOMAI and the nouns hUPOKRITHS and
hUPOKRISIS originally mean "act out a role on stage" (lit. "answer"--this
is the earlier word for which APOKRINOMAI later became standard and is used
in Koine), "role-player" and "role-playing." This is really a rather
interesting culture-historical phenomenon: so powerful was drama as a
public medium of entertainment and education and so universal in the
Hellenistic world was it that the phrase SKHNH PAS hO BIOS ("All life is a
stage") reflects a common awareness of the extent to which people in
everyday life wear masks in the sense that the do not let their appearance
express their inner selves. So the word "hypocrisy" assumes its sense
originally as a dramatic metaphor, and Paul in Romans urges a neat little
maxim: AGAPH ANUPOKRITOS--"love should not be a matter of play-acting."
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, USA 63130
(314) 935-4018
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwc@oui.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/