From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Sun Dec 19 1999 - 08:10:17 EST
At 9:31 PM -0600 12/18/99, Joe A. Friberg wrote:
>Paul Dixon wrote:
>> Surely one would think that in the same immediate context the nuance of
>> YUCH would
>> be the same, but rendering it as life in v. 35, then as soul in verses 36
>> and 37 seems
>> to suggest otherwise.
>
>In v35, YUCH is something that can be both lost and saved at the same time;
>hence there are two levels or types of YUCH referenced in this verse:
>- a lower and higher life, or
>- temporal vs. eternal life, or
>- present life only vs. life continuing to afterlife.
>This alternation is in itself a play on words. We do not use the term
>'soul' in such a bifurcated manner, but as an indivisible organic whole,
>possessing continuity. Hence none of the translations cited have used
>'soul' in this verse.
>
>In v36-37, YUXH is limited to the second category found in v35: the
>higher/eternal life. When viewed in continuity with the current life, this
>is closer to our wholistic conception of 'soul', which is why a number of
>translations choose to switch to this term at this point.
>
>Note that the contrast is not between vv36-37 and v35, but is found within
>v35 itself, while v36-37 merely settle on one of the senses found in v35.
I think Joe's comment is right on target here. Since I started a response
to this yesterday afternoon but didn't finish and send it, I'd like to
piggy-back onto Joe's note a comment or two complementing his.
(1) Even in earlier (Homeric, pre-Socratic, Attic) and Hellenistic Greek,
YUCH is a word with a meaning hard to pin down and perilous to convey into
English consistently with any single word not suited to the context where
YUCH is found. The earliest literary usage is in the opening of the Iliad,
where the wrath of Achilles, it is said,
POLLAS D'IFQIMOUS YUCAS AIDI PROIAYEN
hHRWWN, AUTOUS DE hELWRIA TEUCE KUNESSIN ..
("... hurled forth to Hades many stout YUCAS of heroes,
but made themselves (the heroes) booty for dogs ..."
Even there "soul" is very misleading for YUCAS if we are thinking of any
thing like "soul" in English traditional usage, which itself is anything
but monovalent, inasmuch as it can mean "deathless spirit," "person,"
"personality," "core quality," etc., etc. Erwin Rohde wrote a
now-long-outdated but nevertheless important (and still in-print, I think)
classic study of the wide-ranging different Greek conceptions of it
entitled--what else?--_PSYCHE_ in the middle of the last century.
(2) When we start adding Hebraic conceptions/usages of YUCH in the LXX and
GNT, it gets more complicated: it is used for Heb. NEFESH in Gen. 2:7, that
compound of molded earth-clods and God-breathed spirit that came alive as
HA ADAM, but that, apparently, was not originally thought able to continue
to exist when the earth-clods and God-breathed spirit were reft asunder.
Paul seems to use YUCH for "natural existence" and the adjective YUCIKOS
for "natural" in the sense of what exists in the world of nature. For
example, when talking about the nature of resurrection in 1 Cor 15 he says
we must distinguish between a SWMA YUCIKON and a SWMA PNEUMATIKON; the
former is the physical body or better, the "natural body" that we "are" as
creatures in this world-age, while the later is the "spiritual body" that
we "are to be" in the age-to-come. I am assuming too that he would say that
Jesus "in the flesh" was/had a SWMA YUCIKON but that in the resurrection he
is/has a SWMA PNEUMATIKON.
(3) Quite frankly, this is an immense topic; Paul's question about the
shifting English words used for YUCH in Mk 8:35-37 was honest and naive at
the same time: all of us sooner or later, I think, find that we must come
to terms with the ambivalence, not only of the English word "soul," but
even more of the word YUCH in the Greek Bible: if ever there was a Greek
word that does not lend itself to word-for-word consistent conversion from
Greek to English, this is it. I won't cite it--it's too long and IS under
copyright--but I would urge anyone really interested in the range of
meanings of YUCH in the GNT to consult Louw & Nida, ## 4.1; 9.20; 20.66;
21.7, 20,24, 88; 23.100, 113, 114; 25.279, 280, 291; 26.4; 30.36; 88.200.
And if you're going to consult these sections, it ain't cursory reading,
but something one will have to pause and mull over.
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
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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