> At 10:02 PM 11/16/97 +0900, Arthur Barry wrote:
> >Sirs,
>
> I guess the males have been the most prominent posters over the last few
> days, but I hope the women will also feel free to answer.
>
> >I have been following your correspondence for a few days and I am afraid
> >my Greek is so rudimentary that my head is spinning most of the time. I
> >certainly do not have anything to contribute. I do have a simple
> >question which I am almost embarassed to ask.
>
> Questions are a valuable contribution. There are quite a few beginners out
> there, and if they would ask more questions, there would be more on B-Greek
> for beginners. That said, I'm not sure that I have the answer, but if I
> venture one, that will flush out the experts ;->
>
> >Is there a word in Greek
> >for "widower"? If not, could the term "unmarried" in 1 cor 7:8 embrace
> >widowers?
>
> 1 Cor 7:8 talks about TOIS hAGAMOIS and TAIS CHRAIS. As I understand it,
> TOIS hAGAMOIS refers to people who, for any reason, are not married, and
> this term is sometimes used in contexts where it clearly includes widows or
> divorced people. I believe that it is almost exactly equivalent to the
> English "unmarried". TAIS CHRAIS refers to those who are widowed - in
> general, we think of widows, not widowers, but it is quite possible that
> this term could also refer to widowers. Wait until you see what others say
> before you believe me too much ;->
I would add only a couple notes to Jonathan's response:
(1) I want to underscore that beginners are welcome here and that
questions of all sorts, so long as they actually bear upon the Greek text
of the NT or the Greek language used in the NT, are welcome. Of course, a
really SILLY question may evoke a really SILLY answer.
(2) There's no rough breathing on AGAMOS--the word is a simple combination
of the so-called "alpha privative" prefix and the Greek word for marriage
or sexual union. Also, there's an unresolved question that was raised on
the list about a month ago as to whether this word really includes
widowers or is restricted in meaning to those who have never been married.
The lexica -- at least the standard unabridged Liddell & Scott, indicate
that it can include those who have been married but are currently widowed
or divorced, but the question as to whether this accurately expresses
Hellenistic usage at the time the NT was composed is not really completely
resolved until someone has time to study the passages in contemporary
Greek texts disclosed by a search of the TLG database. I have those
passages, but I haven't had time to look at them yet the way they need to
be looked at.
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/