From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Mon Jul 13 1998 - 07:41:46 EDT
At 2:29 PM +0800 7/12/98, Paul R. Zellmer wrote:
>Mr. Lemuel G. Abarte wrote (in an off-list note):
>>
>> Paul,
>>
>> Perhaps it would be best to cite the passages. There seems to me a
>>difference. But > it would not be brought out in the translation, since
>>one word is only allowed on > print without being a paraphrase.
>>
>Actually, as I went back to build up a list of passages, I found that
>PLANAW is the root of the word from which we get planets. That doesn't
>help me with the semantic domain of APATAW, but it does give us a
>concept for this very common word that is found in verbal form almost 40
>times, not counting the other forms that it is found. Would "wander
>from the true or appointed place" sound too far off the mark for PLANAW?
>
>I found it interesting to note that the book of James included at least
>three of these words for "deceive" in just the first chapter. As one
>who works in a "foreign language," to be able to use so many synonyms
>(correctly, I assume) shows that James had a remarkable grasp of the
>Greek language! That's especially notable if the author is the same
>James referred to by Paul in Galatians 2. But now I am getting off the
>track of the list!
Yes, yes: it DOES make one wonder about the traditionally-ascribed and real
authorship of this book. If the author really WAS the brother of Jesus and
really WAS so conservative in his Jewish Christian understanding of faith,
he nevertheless WAS able to write a pretty good Greek--probably NOT as a
second language (that of course is purely speculative, but it's my
speculation)--all of which is grist for the mill of those who would argue
that Jesus, like his brother, may indeed have been competent in Greek.
Frankly, however, this is so speculative a question that I really don't
think it's worth expanding upon.
I'll speculate a bit more readily, however, about the difference between
PLANAW and APATAW in tradition. PLANAW really does mean "lead astray"--the
metaphor is one of taking another off the right course; APATAW, however, is
more deeply rooted in older traditional Greek theological notions and
Sophistic psychological theory (I'm thinking of Gorgias' hELEHNS EGKWMION)
of a delusion induced in the victim's mind whereby his/her powers of
rational discernment are undermined so that he/she can no longer
distinguish right from wrong or recognize what is in his/her own best
interest. Even so, however,--even if one should say that two different
metaphors are involved here, one of misleading,the other of deluding, the
end result is pretty much the same, isn't it: the victim does what he/she
should not.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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