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Re PROLAMBANW in Gal. 6:1




We should start reading everything anew. "Temporal"? 
"Sequential"? This is a false dilemma. "Already"? i.e. "in advance"? 
of what? Here and everywhere the "pro-" of "prolambano" does not 
express any mere antecedence in the real world: anything that happens 
before anything else.
It is a bit of a naivety to think that here "prolambano" means "I 
already catch". There is no "already". There is no "catching", either. 
Nothing can support this interpretation. Hyeronimus' "praeoccupatus 
sit"would be the only, very scanty, clue. No Greek text shows any 
such usage of "prolambano". Actually, the verb denotes something 
toto caelo different: to wit, a mind act. Roughly speaking, it means "to 
assume". (Cfr. "prolepsis"). The texts says: "Whenever one is 
assumed to be in fault, ...". And even in the two other passages (Mk. 
14:8 and 1Cor. 11:21) the usage of the verb is akin to this.

There is of course much more to say, if we want to fully analyze the 
meaning of "pro-" in "prolambano", or clear up the interpretation of 
these passages. But here, maybe, this could be enough.

Domenico Lembo