"Perry L. Stepp" <plstepp@flash.net>
Edgar Krentz (ekrentz@lstc.edu)
Tue, 28 Jan 1997 14:46:17 -0600
>Hello, all. I have a question about the translation of Prov 21.9 LXX. The
>text reads:
>
>KREISSWN OIKEIN EPI GWNIAS hUPAIQROU
> ("better to dwell in a corner in the open")
>
>hH EN KEKONIAMENOIS META ADIKIAS KAI EN OIKWi KOINWi
> ("than (to dwell?) hypocritically (?) in the same house with a wicked
>person")
>
>I am uncertain as to this translation, especially as to how to understand
>KEKONIAMENOIS (from KONIAW, "to whitewash," but also "to smear (mud)," I
>guess. In OT and NT, KONIAW consistently carries the force of "covering up
>corruption," thus "hypocrisy." But I'm not certain if that's the force
>here.
I think you should translate something like the following:
"It is better to live (have one's house) in a corner under the sky
than in whitewashed walls with injustice and in a defiled (lit.: common)
house."
The sense is that a house is made ritually impure if the people in it
commit injustice. Therefore it is preferable not to live in a house at all,
since a corner in the open should be ritually pure.
It reminds me of the whitewashed sepulchers in Matthew 23.
Edgar Krentz, New Testament
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
1100 EAST 55TH STREET
CHICAGO, IL 60615
Tel: [773] 256-0752; (H) [773] 947-8105
e-mail: ekrentz@lstc.edu