Re: 1 Corinthians 4:13
Jonathan Robie (jwrobie@mindspring.com)
Sun, 27 Jul 1997 17:40:26 -0400
At 02:40 PM 7/27/97 -0400, GentlJoe@aol.com wrote:
>I am having difficulty finding words in English to express these two Greek
>words in their idiomatic completeness: PERIKATHARMATA- tranlated filth in
>KJV, and PERIPSEMA- tranlated offscouring. My lexicon, Thayer's, tells of
>PERIKATHARMATA being used to describe an expiatory criminal sacrifice the
>Greeks used to change bad fortune, and PERIPSEMA is a man who was yearly
>tossed into sea by the Athenians to appease the gods. The context of Paul's
>letter clearly points to the idioms, yet I can find no way of making this
>understood in Enlish without attaching explanatory paragraphs to the text.
BAGD suggests a very clever translation: 'scapegoats for the world' (for
PERIKATHARMATA TOU KOSMOU). It explains that the original meaning, to cleans
all around, could refer to that which is removed as the result of a thorough
cleansing; since this achieves purification, it has also taken on the
meaning of a propitiatory offering. The English term 'scapegoats' captures
several meanings nicely here. Unfortunately, PERIPSEMA is extremely similar,
carrying every single one of these meanings, and it would be nice to use
'scapegoat' again...
Does anybody see a clear distinction between the two words?
Jonathan
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Jonathan Robie jwrobie@mindspring.com http://www.mindspring.com/~jwrobie
POET Software, 3207 Gibson Road, Durham, N.C., 27703 http://www.poet.com
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