From: Shaughn Daniel (shaughn.daniel@student.uni-tuebingen.de)
Date: Mon Jan 29 1996 - 05:36:18 EST
Hello there, I am excited at discovering the following verse. I wanted to
drop it here for any of your comments:
Aeschines Against Ctesiphon 110
(perseus reference: aeschin. 3.110):
[110] They were not content with taking
this oath, but they added an imprecation
and a mighty curse concerning this (ALLA KAI
PROSTROPHN KAI ARAN ISCURAN UPER TOUTWN EPOIHSANTO);
for it stands thus written in the curse
(GEGRAPTAI GAR OUTWS EN TH ARA): "If any
one should violate this," it says, "whether
city or private man, or tribe, let them be
under the curse," (EI TIS TADE PARABAINOI
H POLIS I IDIITHS H EQNOS, ENAGHS ESTW)
it says, "of Apollo and
Artemis and Leto and Athena Pronaea."
Gal. 1.9 "If anybody is preaching to you a
gospel other than what you accepted,
let him be under the curse" (EI TIS UMAS
EUAGGELIZETAI PAR O PARELABETE, ANATHEMA ESTW)
Some thoughts from my fuller thesis concerning ANATHEMA: ANATHEMA in Gal.
1.8f is to be understood as a "curse" which would have effectively
"expelled" the opponents in Galatians, thus it would be equal to
APOSYNAGWGOS, but in the context of the church, a gospel which entails
blessings and curses, and Paul's self-understanding as the Apostle to the
Gentiles. The literary background for Paul's ANATHEMA is to be found
directly in the vocabulary of the LXX, primarily in the context of the ban.
Supposed LXX coinage is supported by two arguments: 1. the absence of
ANATHEMA as "curse" from classical sources up to the time of the LXX and 2.
the all but complete absence of ANATHEMA in literature after the time of
the LXX (ANATHEMA is found in only 2 sources (of some 588 hits!) outside
Jewish/Christian literature).
I still have many nagging questions: what is the normative term in
classical Greek for "curse"--ENAGHS or EPARATOS or something else? What I
mean by "normative" is a term that is purely only negative, not something
like ARA which can be "prayer" in certain contexts and "curse" in others.
Ro 9.3 is given frequently as a parallel to Gal 1.9
based on the ANAQEMA where Paul exclames of his
Jewish brothers, "For I could wish that I myself
were cursed [ANAQEMA] and cut off from Christ
for the sake of my brothers...." In addition to this,
the ANAQEMA of Ro 9.3 is conceptually combined
with Ex 32.32, the concept of "to blot from a book" where
Moses prays for his people. Looking at Ro 9 as a whole
lends itself to that place in Scripture, for there is
a. reference to "the receiving of the law" (9.4), b. the whole
is a major discussion of understanding the term "Israel",
and c. Ex 33.19 is quoted at 9.15 with the introductory
phrase "For He says to Moses,...."
It has been defended in a few works that Gal reveals
a vocabulary of the prophets in their self-description.
Paul's "in the belly" passage in Ga 1.15 has been
seen as parallel to Jeremiah's vocabulary in his calling.
Hence, Paul's self-understanding is influenced by
his reading of the LXX, of which Jeremiah is a figure
which Paul records his own experience with.
The Romans 9 passage may serve as Paul's self-understanding
in the light of Moses and the giving of the law. Just as
Moses has understood the implications of breaking God's law,
so has Paul understood the implications of breaking the gospel
which he preaches and prays with the same attitude of Moses for
his people.
Sincerely,
Shaughn Daniel
Tuebingen, Germany
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