Re: "contemporary"

Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Fri, 18 Apr 1997 10:44:01 -0500

At 9:41 AM -0500 4/18/97, James C. Clardy, Jr. wrote:
>In my modern Greek dictionary, there are several terms for
>"contemporary":
>
>1. sugchronos
>2. tHs idias epochHs
>3. monternos
>4 idias Hlikias
>
>Is there a koine word which carries basically the same meaning as our
>modern American word "contemporary"? I know that Hlikia and idios are
>found several times in the NT.

Classical Attic uses hHLIKIWTHS for a co-eval, one of one's own generation;
there are also SUNHLIKIWTHS, which apparently is equivalent to the
preceding, in later Greek, and hOMHLIX, which appears to be primarily a
poetic adjective meaning the same thing.

>For my present purposes, it would also be helpful to know that should
>there be such a word, if it is ever used in reference to "worship"
>(latreia), or a synonymn.

Well, that's certainly not true of the above words; the likelihood of such
a connection really eludes me. I do find that SULLATREUW is used by
Plutarch (2.941e) in the sense "serve together"--which could be a matter of
simple service to a master or conceivably worship of a deity--but that
doesn't need to imply also that the SULLATREUONTES are hHLIKIWTAI.

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/