From: Iver Larsen (alice-iver_larsen@wycliffe.org)
Date: Mon Dec 11 2000 - 13:05:20 EST
> From: Harold R. Holmyard III [mailto:hholmyard@ont.com]
>
> Dear Iver,
>
> You are right in your general summary of the range of meaning for GENEA,
> and it is helpful to be alerted to the difference from the English word
> "generation." Thank you. But the Greek word can have the meaning
> "generation," and I disagree with some of your assignments of verses to
> categories other than this one. Under the meaning "generation" I would put:
> Matt 23:36; Luke 17:25; Matt 11:16; Heb 3:10; and Matt 24:34. Of course, I
> would include the parallels as well. A couple of other passages that you
> put under the gloss "people" are debatable but could fit into this category
> of "generation."
>
> Yours,
> Harold Holmyard
Dear Harold,
I am happy to hear that you have been alerted to the difference in semantic
range between "generation" and GENEA. That was my main purpose, because it is my
impression that a lot of exegesis of the contexts where this word occurs puts
too much weight on the narrow semantic range of English "generation."
Just as the word "generation" is a gloss that only covers one of the senses of
GENEA, and not the most common sense, so does the gloss "people" on its own not
adequately cover any of the senses of GENEA. For the most common sense of GENEA,
especially when it is followed by the discourse reference "this" I suggested: "a
certain class or type of people." (Maybe I should add that hAUTH in B-Greek is
anaphoric, unless there are special contexts that make it kataphoric. Or in
linguistic terms, the anaphoric use is the unmarked use.) The purpose of the
words that are used to qualify GENEA, whether they are descriptives like
"adulterous", "unfaithful" or the discourse deictic "this", is to give a
description of or pointer to what characterizes the type or group of people
mentioned. These expressions rely heavily on the context for their
interpretation.
To take Matt 23:36 as an example, the context is that Jesus talks TO the "crowds
and his disciples" (23:1) ABOUT the "scribes and Pharisees"
(23:2,13,15,23,25,27,29.) The very strong indictment of this type of people
cannot refer to the whole crowd and the disciples of Jesus, nor all the people
who happened to be contemporaries of Jesus.
In the following verse, 23:37, Jesus talks about "Jerusalem" as those who kill
and stone the prophets, and as those who have refused to accept him and his
message. He cannot by this be referring to the whole population of Jerusalem,
but to a small, but influential group of people in Jerusalem. And it is not hard
to guess what group of people he has in mind. I think the context shows that it
is "such people" that will be judged for their unbelief.
Sincerely,
Iver Larsen
---
B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
You are currently subscribed to b-greek as: [jwrobie@mindspring.com]
To unsubscribe, forward this message to leave-b-greek-327Q@franklin.oit.unc.edu
To subscribe, send a message to subscribe-b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:36:44 EDT