From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Mon Jan 12 1998 - 19:55:41 EST
At 6:21 PM -0600 1/12/98, Stevens, Charles C wrote:
>At 3:40PM on 1/12/1997, Andrew Kulikovsky opines:
>
><<What purpose would the writer have in making his communication
>ambiguous and therefore confusing?>>
>
>My opinion: its meaning was unambiguous to native speakers/readers of
>Koine at the time that it was written. The ambiguity is in English and
>in other languages. A native speaker of Koine Greek, were such
>available, could clarify this particular use of the genitive in an
>instant.
>
>I've commented before that few and far between are the constructs in one
>language that map *exactly* onto constructs in another; the ambiguity is
>not in the original language but in attempting to fit the underlying
>thoughts and thought patterns into a medium ill-suited to it. I have no
>problem with Craig's postulate that the right answer for the speaker of
>modern English, barring concrete and unequival evidence to the contrary,
>is probably "all of the above".
On the other hand, there certainly is intentional ambiguity often enough in
literary or rhetorical prose, and this is not less true in the NT. One of
the better-known examples is the way the word ANWQEN is used in John 3:3,
7, where there appears to be a deliberate play upon the two senses: "da
capo" i.e. "all over again from the beginning" and "from above" i.e. "by
divine initiative." Whether we have such intentional ambiguity in the case
of DIA PISTEWS IHSOU CRISTOU is another question. I will add however that
the communication of meaning in ordinary speech always fraught with
potential ambiguity and misunderstanding, not because an author intends to
be misunderstood, but because the same words are read by different
readers/heard by different listeners with a different responsiveness.
Neither in Koine Greek nor in any modern language is any particular
utterance necessarily heard and understood in exactly the sense that the
author intends it. Perhaps it's a little easier when the phrase is concrete
as "Catch that ball"--but even that little imperative phrase can be
intended by its speaker or understood by the hearer in a metaphorical sense
under the right circumstances.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad@yancey.main.nc.us
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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