From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Sun Apr 02 2000 - 21:31:23 EDT
At 6:30 PM -0400 4/2/00, Stephen C. Carlson wrote:
>At 10:27 AM 3/31/00 -0600, Carl W. Conrad wrote:
>>The text: ASPASASQE ANDRONIKON KAI IOUNIAN TOUS SUGGENEIS MOU KAI
>>SUNAICMALWTOUS MOU, hOITINES EISIN EPISHMOI EN TOIS APOSTOLOIS, hOI KAI PRO
>>EMOU GEGONAN EN CRISTWi.
>>
>>For my part, I can only say that readers of this text who come to it
>>already convinced that a woman could not have been an APOSTOLOS will find a
>>way to make EPISHMOI EN TOIS APOSTOLOIS function as the grammatical
>>equivalent of TIMHQEISAI hUPO TWN APOSTOLWN, while readers who are
>>open-minded to the possibility that a woman MAY have been an APOSTOLOS will
>>find it most natural to understand the phrase EPISHMOI EN TOIS APOSTOLOIS
>>as "distinguished among the apostles." I have more sympathy (just a little
>>bit--not very much) for those who still want to believe that IOUNIAN is
>>masculine than for those who want to understand EPISHMOS EN TOIS APOSTOLOIS
>>to mean "CONSIDERED prominent BY the apostles."
>
>Well, I have the opposite opinion. The masculine IOUNIAN
>is untenable, but the view EPISHMOI EN TOIS APOSTOLOIS =
>"prominent among (= in the opinion of) the apostles" is
>quite defensible.
>
>First, other examples of the phrase EPISHMOI EN ... support
>this construction. For example, Euripides, Hippolytus 106,
>refers to Aphrodite as KAPISTHMOS EN BROTOIS "prominent among
>mortals." The goddess Aphrodite was not, of course, a mortal,
>but merely well thought of my mortals.
I assume that was meant to be KA'PISHMOS EN BROTOIS; and there's no arguing
with that interpretsation.
>Second, other examples of EN shows a primary locative, but
>secondary agentival, sense. For example, Rom 2:24 TO GAR
>ONOMA TOU QEOU DI hUMAS BLASFHMEITAI EN TOIS EQNESIN. "For
>the name of God because of us is blasphemed among (by)
>the Gentiles." Other examples include Luke 16:15 TO EN
>ANQRWPOIS hUYHLON "what is exalted among (by) people"
>and John 7:12 KAI GOGGUSMOS PERI AUTOU HN POLUS EN TOIS
>OCLOIS "and there was much murmuring about him among (by)
>the crowd."
I will agree with the interpretation of these passages as indicating that
the action takes place "amongst" the group indicated by the dative, but I'd
still be inclined to see these as fundamentally locative, indicating WHERE
these perspectives are held; on the other hand, it's a short step from that
to standardization of the pattern as agentive, and I'd be prepared to
accept that this "agentive" EN did become one of the ways of indicating
agent in Koine Greek.
>Finally, if Paul intended to mean that Andronicus and
>Junia were prominent apostles, he should have used a
>partitive construction as in: 3 Macc. 6:1 ELEAZAROS DE
>TIS ANHR EPISHMOS TWN APO THS CWRAS hEIRWN "And Eleazar,
>who was a prominent man of the priests from the country"
>and Mart. Poly. 14:1 KRIOS EPISHMOS EK MEGALOU POIMNIOU
>"a prominent ram from a great flock."
I find this less cogent than the other arguments, although I must agree
that some such structure would have obviated any ambiguity.
>For these reasons, I conclude that Rom 16:7 means that
>Andronicus and Junia were well thought of among (by)
>the apostles.
This is very good, Stephen. I'm happy to acknowledge the cogency of your
demonstration; it really ought to be published if it hasn't already been. I
stand corrected and I regret I wasn't more moderate in the affirmation
you've cited me as making above. While I am not convinced that Romans 16:7
must necessarily mean "held to be distinguished by the apostles," I
acknowledge that it's quite plausible and may be right.
--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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