From: Peter Clark (peter_clark47@hotmail.com)
Date: Thu Mar 30 2000 - 07:58:25 EST
Hello I am a new member.
AFORIZO appears 3 times in Matthew, at 13:49 and twice at 25:32. The
imagery clearly derives from Exekiel 34 (LXX) where Ezekiel's translator
uses DIAKRINO; Mtt substitutes for this "philosophical" or mental
distinction/judgement the more forceful or physical AFORIZO. Now since it
is highly likely that Mtt was written in or destined for Antioch (a
supposition at least partly confirmed by Ignatius to the Ephesians), and
accepting that there would have been a sizeable Zoroastrian community in
Antioch (as in Cappadocia, Parthia, Armenia and so on, see Strabo et al),
could Mtt have been using AFORIZO here to appeal to the Zoroastrians whose
eschatology, as laid out in the Gathas of Zarathustra, was very much
concerned with physical seperation. I suggest that for Mtt the word AFORIZO
is used as an equivalent to the Gathic CI which also carried with it
connotations of physical separation, as in the Cinvat Bridge, or Bridge of
the Separator (cf Skt CI, to cut). There are, I maintain, other Zoroastrian
signposts in Mtt (aside from the obvious MAGOI pericope) which I would be
pleased to discuss.
Peter Clark
Walsall/Chester
UK
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