From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Tue Dec 22 1998 - 09:24:18 EST
At 5:50 PM -0600 12/21/98, Joseph P Hennessy, MD wrote:
>In 1 Cor 5:4, I find ...hOS KAI PHO^TISEI TA KRUPTA TOU SKOTOUS... If I
>take TA KRUPTA as accus. pl. neut. pres. act. part. of KRUPTO^ "things
>which are hidden," then, TOU SKOTOUS serves as a subjective genitive with
>this verbal: "those things which the darkness hides" or "which are hidden
>in the darkness." The difficulty here is the nature of what is hidden, and
>will be brought to light by the Lord when he comes: to take KRUPTA more as
>an adjective used substantivally (KRUPTOS) than in its verbal sense subtly
>alters the genitive relationship and could suggest that these hidden things
>are produced by the darkness, a "spawn of Satan." But is everything hidden
>"of" the darkness, or may some things only be hidden "in" the darkness?
>
>While the context of the passage contains no specific references to the
>"realm of darkness," the very next clause brings me to TAS BOULAS TO^N
>KARDIO^N, and motives may be "darker" than just things.
>
>Or, perish the thought, am I gilding the lily in pseudo-erudition?
In the first place TA KRUPTA is indeed neuter plural accusative, but it is
not a present active participle of KRUPTW (which would have to be KRUPTONTA
(but I think you really meant passive--KRUPTOMENA) but rather a verbal
adjective, KRUPTOS/H/ON, which adjective in this instance would be closer
in meaning, I think, to an aorist ptc. KRUFQENTA. I think there might be
some plausibility in your suggestion that TOU SKOTOUS may be understood as
a subjective genitive: "those things which the darkness hides"--but I think
that (1) this is made less likely by the fact that TOU SKOTOUS is in a
predicate position relative to TA KRUPTA, and (2) I think your second
alternative is really more likely "which are hidden in the darkness"--i.e.
TOU SKOTOUS is one of those broadest-category genitives which are best left
without further categorization once we've noted that we have a genitive of
a noun dependent upon another noun, so that a translation least fettered by
preconceptions might be "the darkness-hidden things." Personally, I think
we ought not to read more into this phrase TA KRUPTA TOU SKOTOUS than the
context suggests. It seems to me that TOU SKOTOUS is almost even
"appositional" to TA KRUPTA: "things that are concealed, i.e. are obscure."
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/
--- B-Greek home page: http://sunsite.unc.edu/bgreek You are currently subscribed to b-greek as: [cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu] To unsubscribe, forward this message to leave-b-greek-329W@franklin.oit.unc.edu To subscribe, send a message to subscribe-b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:40:11 EDT