From: Iver Larsen (alice-iver_larsen@wycliffe.org)
Date: Mon Jan 22 2001 - 06:21:54 EST
> > Has anyone been making note of changes from BAGD to BDAG?
> >
> > I just noticed on page 138 that the interpretation that ARXH means that
> > Christ was created at Rv 3:14 has been upgraded from poss. to prob.
> >
> Dear Dan,
>
> Thank you for sharing this update. One clue may be in the BAGD/DBAG
> reference itself. It cites the JTS article "Christ as ARCH of Creation,"
> by C.F.BURNEY, JTS XXVII. Burney considers the Hebrew ReSHit [beginning]
> in detail and concludes strongly against ARCH as "source":
The BAG from 1957 also cites CFBurney under ARCH sense no. 2: "the first cause".
> The BAGD/BDAG reference also cites Job 40:19 ARCH, speaking of Behemoth (a
> hippo?) "He {is} ARCH [a beginning, first] of the ways of God". Behemoth
> was not the source or "first cause" of God's ways, but rather was one of
> them, or a partitive genitive.
This I could not find in the 1957 edition.
> Although the reason for the update is not explicitly stated, further
> contemplation of this article may have influenced the update. The primary
> meaning of ARCH at Rev. 3:14 admits that Christ is a part of creation. It
> is for theological considerations that "source" and "first cause" are
> translated for ARCH, as Alford's admits:
> Sincerely,
> Wes Williams
I'd like to comment on the statement "the primary meaning of X at Y." This kind
of statement does not agree with my understanding of semantics. Most words have
several "meanings" or rather "senses." BAG lists four senses of ARCH, but why
they list the senses in the order they do is not clear to me. The primary sense
normally refers to the most commonly attested sense. In that sense the sense of
"beginning" is the primary sense of ARCH.
Having said that, I would note that the actual sense of a particular word is
dependent on the context. A word like ARCH comes to the context with all its
senses, so to speak, and the context "chooses" or determines what is the
intended sense that would fit with this context. The idea of primary, secondary
etc. does not determine which sense is to be understood in a particular context.
Since Bauer lists "ruler, (person with) authority" as another common sense of
ARCH (I would have listed this as the second(ary) sense rather the rare "first
cause") and since the primary sense of "beginning" does not fit in Rev 3:14,
would it not be more reasonable to suggest that ARCH here is to be understood in
its secondary sense, i.e.. "ruler of God's creation"?
Iver Larsen
Kolding, Denmark
alice-iver_larsen@wycliffe.org
---
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 - 15:36:48 EDT