Re: SWMATWN KAI YUCAI ANQRWPWN, R 18:13

Jonathan Robie (jwrobie@mindspring.com)
Tue, 28 Oct 1997 12:19:16 -0500

At 05:19 AM 10/28/97 -0600, Carl W. Conrad wrote:
>At 1:17 PM -0600 10/25/97, Paul S. Dixon wrote:

> ...KAI SWMATWN KAI YUCAS ANQRWPWN; moreover, UBS4 punctuates with
>a comma after SWMATWN. It would appear then that SWMATWN need not
>be coordinated with YUCAS ANQRWPWN.

The phrase YUCAS ANQRWPWN, in conjunction with this list of goods and the
wailing of the merchants, reminds me of the mourning for Tyre in Ezekiel 27,
which uses the phrase EN PSUCHAIS ANQRWPWN in a similar way, and also brings
in horses as part of the goods being exchanged:

The LXX for Ezekiel 27:13-14 reads:

hH hELLAS KAI hH SUMPASA KAI TA PARATEINONTA
hOUTOI ENEPOREUONTO SOI EN PSUCHAIS ANQRWPWN
KAI SKEUH KALKA EDWKAN THN EMPORIAN SOU
EKS OIKOU QERGAMA hIPPOUS KAI hIPPEIS EDWKAN AGORAN SOU

Robertson's Word Pictures has this to say:

<start quote>

Of horses (hipp™n). Here then is a return to the construction of the genitive
after gomon in verse #12 though not used here, an anomalous genitive
construction (Charles). Of chariots (red™n). A Gallic word for a vehicle
with four wheels, here only in N.T. Of slaves (somat™n). "Of bodies,"
treated as animals or implements, like the horses and the chariots (cf.
rickshaw men in China). This use of s™ma for slave occurs in #Ge 34:29 Tob
10:11 (s™mata kai ktn, slaves and cattle); II Macc. 8:11.

Souls of men (psuchas anthr™p™n). Deissmann (Bible Studies, p. 160) finds
this use of s™ma for slave in the Egyptian Delta. Return to the accusative
psuchas. From #Nu 31:35; 1Ch 5:21; Eze 27:13 This addition is an explanation
of the use of s™mata for slaves, "human live stock" (Swete), but slaves all
the same. Perhaps kai here should be rendered "even," not "and": "bodies
even souls of men." The slave merchant was called s™matemporos (body
merchant).

<end quote>

Swete, cited in the New Bible Commentary, talks about the slave trade of
John's day:

"The world of St. John's day ministered in a thousand ways to the follies
and vices of Babylon, but the climax was reached in the sacrifice of human
life which recruited the huge familiae of the rich, filled the brothels, and
ministered to the brutal pleasures of the amphitheatre" (The Apocalypse of
St. John, p. 235).

So now I am beginning to understand a little more of the background behind
the translations...

Jonathan

Jonathan Robie
jwrobie@mindspring.com
http://www.mindspring.com/~jwrobie