From: Carlton Winbery (winberyc@popalex1.linknet.net)
Date: Wed Jan 03 1996 - 12:20:34 EST
Carl Conrad wrote;
(omission)
>I think probably one would need to get into the whole semantic cluster of
>NT nouns, adjectives, and verbs for "sin." Certainly much more than
>hAMARTANW and hAMARTIA are involved. We find PARAPTWMA and PARABASIS, the
>latter perhaps more akin to the older Israelite and Jewish notion of
>"walking in the paths" of the Lord. Perhaps more significant still are the
>usages of "obey" and "disobey" (hUPAKOUW, PARAKOUW) and their cognates, and
>THREW and FULASSW with the words for commandments.
>
>I am myself a nut regarding etymology and its bearing upon the meanings of
>words, but I've come to realize that root meanings can become wholly lost
>in later functions of compounds. And I'm not so sure that ideas can't be
>carried across from one linguistic milieu to another. Granted that there
>are great perils and problems, as may readily be seen in usage of words
>like KURIOS and MAR. And it seems to me that Paul is quite conscious of the
>need to defend an understanding of the gospel that is distinct from Greek
>mysticism (a chief concern, I think, in 1 Cor) and also from Judaism (a
>chief concern in Gal). At the same time, he exploits the metaphors of Greek
>athletic competition when he writes to a predominantly gentile community,
>as in Philippians, and Greco/Roman political language too in the same
>letter (I'm thinking of SWTHR and POLITEUMA).
>
>I think this is an IMMENSE subject. It's one I find fascinating, but one
>that I fear is all too open to facile overgeneralizations. Certainly the
>transmission of a faith from one cultural milieu to another is fraught with
>both perils and opportunities. But another thing that most are surely well
>aware of is that the Palestine of Jesus was anything BUT culturally
>homogeneous.
A similar area where I would love to hear from Carl and other Greek
classical scholars is the use of DIKAIOS, DIKAIOW, DIKAIOSUNH. This word
group was taken over into the LXX in general to translate concepts of the
just demand of God and aspects of relating to a just God. I would like to
know the scope of referents it could have in Greek society leading up to
and during the Hellenistic period. I have read the etymology in Kittel,
TDNT.
Grace,
Carlton L. Winbery
Prof. Religion
LA College, Pineville, La
winberyc@popalex1.linknet.net
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