Re: LOGOS vs RHMA

Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Thu, 27 Feb 1997 08:04:28 -0600

At 6:23 AM -0600 2/27/97, William Dicks wrote:
>Hi all b-greekers,
> I have been off this list now for several months and intend to get back
>onto it again. We have all heard of the so-called preacher Greek. My
>question is: what do you guys think of the popular usage of RHMA(trans?) as
>opposed to LOGOS? The popular usage of preachers is that LOGOS refers to the
>written word whereas RHMA refers to the spoken word.

Do you mean "popular usage" of present-day preachers? Certainly in the NT
LOGOS is used of spoken proclamation as well as in that distinctive
theological sense in John's prologue; hRHMA often seems to be used of
commandments or moral dicta. Certainly etymologically hRHMA is an
object-noun of that verb-root for speaking, hRH-, but as we all know, the
etymology is rarely a clear indication of what the word means or how it
functions at a particular time period and in a particular context.

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/