From: Stephen C. Carlson (scarlson@mindspring.com)
Date: Wed Apr 05 2000 - 00:12:43 EDT
At 08:09 AM 4/4/00 -0500, Carl W. Conrad wrote:
>This is precisely why I was unwilling to accept Stephen Carlson's
>demonstration that a phrase of the sort <EPISHMOS EINAI EN (dative plural
>noun)> could ONLY be understood in the sense "to be considered
>distinguished by X."
To clarify the record, I has argued that this sense is "defensible"
and that it was the sense I favored. Certainly, Chrysostom is good
evidence the phrase could (legitimately) be construed in the other
sense. Chrysostom is not the most careful exegete, however, nor
afraid to buck the trend. For example, Vincent Taylor has pointed
out that Chrysostom misconstrued a passage in Eusebius to conclude
that Mark's gospel was composed in Alexandria. Another factor in
favor of the other sense is that Paul's usage of apostle is looser
than that of Luke's or other Christians in the first and second
centuries.
>I think that "to be one of X" remains a viable way of
>understanding the Greek of Romans 16:7--BUT, Stephen has certainly shown
>that (a) a phrase of that sort CAN and in some instances MUST be
>interpreted as meaning "to be considered distinguished by X", and (b) that
>any ambiguity COULD have been avoided by more careful phrasing. The upshot
>of this, as I see it, is that Romans 16:7, despite the reasonable
>likelihood that IOUNIAN refers to a woman, is not, after all, the clear and
>convincing evidence one way or the other, whether FOR or AGAINST the
>proposition that a woman could have been an apostle in the early church.
>Convincing evidence for that will have to be sought elsewhere; what we have
>here is no more than an intriguing but questionable hint.
I would generally agree with this, except that I feel that the balance
of probability tilt even if slightly in favor of the sense "to be
considered distinguished among (=by) X."
Stephen Carlson
-- Stephen C. Carlson mailto:scarlson@mindspring.com Synoptic Problem Home Page http://www.mindspring.com/~scarlson/synopt/ "Poetry speaks of aspirations, and songs chant the words." Shujing 2.35--- 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
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