From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Tue Aug 31 1999 - 09:39:49 EDT
At 4:30 AM -0700 8/31/99, Robert W Meyers wrote:
>The NIV reads
>
> Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life
> to which you were called when you made your good confession in
> the presence of many witnesses (Gr. marturon---same meaning here
> as in Heb. 12:1[?]). (1 Timothy 6:12 NIV)
>
>As far as I can see, the "when" is an unwarranted insertion by the
>NIV, completely changing the meaning of the whole verse, and
>turning it into a fascinating question: "Who, then, are the
>'many witnesses?'
>
>Is there any justification in the Greek or from some texts for the
>"when?"
The text: AGWNIZOU TON KALON AGWNA THS PISTEWS, EPILABOU THS AIWNIOU ZWHS,
EIS hHN EKLHQHS KAI hWMOLOGHSAS THN KALHN hOMOLOGIAN ENWPION POLLWN
MARTURWN.
I don't know whether the committee was looking at the same text, but in
NA27 and UBS4 it reads as above, with hWMOLOGHSAS to be understood only as
a finite verb (2 sg. aorist indicative active)--but, if one read that verb
with an Omicron rather than an Omega as the initial vowel, hOMOLOGHSAS, it
would be a masculine nominative singular aorist active participle, and it
could indeed bear the sense given it in the NIV--although the participle
would not have to bear a distinctly contemporaneous temporal sense ("when
you made your good confession")--it could as easily be "after you made your
good confession" or "because you made your good confession."
Another possible ground for that interpretation might be that another KAI
is attested in a couple MSS prior to EKLHQHS, which might suggest the two
verbs EKLHQHS and hWMOLOGHSAS should be understood as closely linked.
On the other hand, I don't quite see how the phrasing of Heb 12:1 is related:
TOSOUTON ECONTES PERIKEIMENON hHMIN NEFOS MARTURWN
There the author is referring to the saints of faith of the entire
tradition, whereas in 1 Tim 6:12 presumably the reference is to members of
the congregation in the presence of whom Timothy made his public
affirmation of faith.
At any rate, it does NOT seem to me that what NIV has given is a "wildly
improbable" interpretation of the text, but I would like to know exactly
how they understood the text and whether they were reading a participle or
finite verb form of hOMOLOGEW.
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
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