From: Rolf Furuli (furuli@online.no)
Date: Wed Jan 24 2001 - 12:05:42 EST
James D. Ernest wrote:
>Fair enough. Just one final meta-question: Do some list members presuppose
>that for understanding the meaning of a particular Greek phrase in the Bible
>(e.g., he archh ths ktisews) the application of modern linguistic theories
>or of traditional grammatical categories (i.e., what kind of genitive is
>this?) is more helpful than evidence of how ancient writers whose first
>language was Greek and who work in similar semantic terrain (e.g., other NT
>authors, or Didymus) assessed the possible range of meaning of the phrase?
>Maybe the answer is "No, but the former approaches are also valuable, and
>this list is devoted to them"--which is ok with me, though it seems a little
>narrow. But if the answer is Yes, I confess myself befuddled.
>
>James
>
Dear Ernest,
I am sorry to contribute to your befuddlement, but my answer is a qualified
"yes".
James Barr rightly debunked the "etymological fallacy", and he showed that
what counts is the contemporaneous use of a word. So the NT writers are
valuable witnesses - but we should keep in mind that *use* is not the same
as *meaning*. The NT writers had a Hebrew background, so contemporaneous
Hebrew use would also accord with Barr's words. The problem is that we have
to see this use through Rabbinic and Essenic eyes, and retrotranslation is
not allways easy.
The views of Didymus and the Church fathers have little weight because they
lived so long after the NT writers, and the translations in the LXX are
useful only to the extent it can be demonstrated that the text was used in
the first century.
Modern linguistics has progressed rapidly the last two-three decades, and
it has thrown much light on Greek grammar and the nuances of communication
inside the NT. Just think of the studies of Porter and and Fanning and the
extremely valuable distinction made by Mary Broman Olsen between
"conversational pragmatic implicture" and "semantic meaning". Linguistics
is just a tool; we cannot say that because this or that rule, this phrase
*must* mean this or that. But following sound linguistic procedures
together with a study of contemporaneous use will make us better
interpreters.
Regards
Rolf
Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo
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