From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Thu Jan 29 1998 - 06:00:35 EST
Just a brief note on these two verbs. My own sense is that, given the right context, they CAN mean the same thing, although they are, in their ranges of usage, two very different verbs.
AFIHMI which has gone a long way by the NT era to becoming an omega verb--AFIW--has a rich array of senses, most fundamental of which is "let go." One of its increasingly regular uses by the NT era is in the sense of classical Attic EAW, "allow," "permit"--and in modern Greek it's become in the combination of AS NA + subjunctive (= ancient AFES hINA + subj.) the regular form of the imperative. At any rate, one of its NT senses is "remit" sin, and we find particularly in the JBpt narratives of the gospels (unless I misremember) the phrase BAPTISMA METANOIAS EIS AFESIN hAMARTIWN.
CARIZOMAI is closely linked to CARIS, the most fundamental sense of which (as of its correlative term in Latin, GRATIA) is kindness that evokes a reciprocal kindness or gratitude; it can mean "do a favor" or "offer something as a favor" where the favor evokes a response of gratitude. Personally, I think we are overly stuck on the notion of CARIS as God's act and don't take seriously enough the intent to evoke a response in the receiver of it. Yes, it's true that CARIZOMAI means "do something freely," "do/give something freely" but the ordinary response to it is, in the classical Attic phrase CARIN EIDENAI, "to acknowledge the favor," "to show gratitude"--or in the still modern verb with which one acknowledges a kindness, EUCARISTEW--which even in the NT means "to offer thanks." The verb CARIZOMAI is used in one striking instance I've seen in the pseudo-Demosthenean speech KATA NEAIRAS, at the end of which Apollodorus appeals to the jury and says something like--this isn't an exact quote--, "Your duty is not
CARIZESQAI DIKHN (make a verdict of 'not guilty' and acquit) but DIKAZEIN KATA DIKHN." And so CARIZOMAI is used occasionally in the NT in the same sense as AFIW hAMARTIAS.
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