From: Iver Larsen (alice-iver_larsen@wycliffe.org)
Date: Thu Jan 25 2001 - 05:15:49 EST
>
> The word BeKoR in the sentence [These are all the occurences of
> ARXH/BeKoR followed by the genitive] should have been ReSHiT to read
> These are all the occurences of ARXH/ReSHiT followed by the genitive.
>
> Sorry for the typo,
> Dan Parker
Dear Dan,
I thought we were discussing the semantic range of ARCH and not the semantic
range of ReSHiT. And whether or not ARCH is followed by a genitive is incidental
to and not decisive for the semantic range.
Would it not be reasonable to look at all the other places in the LXX where ARCH
is used as the translation of other Hebrew words as well as all the other places
in the NT where ARCH is used?
I am used to the basic guideline that if you would like to get a feel for the
range of meaning of a particular word in a language, you try to get a
concordance and study all the occurrences of that word. The semantic circle of
meaning of ARCH certainly overlaps with the circle of meaning of the English
"beginning", but the Greek and English words are far from identical in their
semantic ranges.
Now ARCH is used about 55 times in the NT and 236 in the OT. I don't have time
to study all these occurrences, and those who have produced our lexicons have
already done such study.
However, as a start I did look up the 15 times ARCH occurs in LXX Genesis and
compared the LXX with the Hebrew. I am only a beginning student of Hebrew, but
my wife helped me to notice the following:
(1) ARCH was used four times to translate ReSHiT and the meaning in those
context is "beginning" since that is the meaning of this Hebrew word. (Gen 1:1,
10:10, 13:4, 49:3)
(2) ARCH was used four times to translate RoSH "head" (Gen 2:10, 40:13, 40:20
twice)
(3) ARCH was used three times to translate HaLaL "beginning" (Gen 41;21, 43:18,
20)
(4) ARCH was used four times to translate MaSHaL "dominion, rule" or similar
expressions of positions of rule/authority (Gen 1:16 twice, 40:21, 41:13) - The
sun "rules" the day, and the moon "rules" the night. The arch-cup-bearer has
dominion over other cup-bearers and the arch-baker has dominion over other
bakers.
Based on the few occurrences in Genesis, it appears that the two "competing"
senses of ARCH (first in time and first in position) are fairly equally
represented. How did the very literal NASB translate these Hebrew words that LXX
renders with ARCH?
I think it is also helpful to remember that the verb ARXW "be first" in the
active means "to rule" and in mid. means "to begin". The noun ARXWN denotes the
agent and is the active participle of ARXW and therefore only has the active
sense "the one who rules". The noun ARCH does not refer to the agent, but to the
activity itself, and therefore has retained both aspects of ARXW (being first
either in time or position). That ARCH can be extended from authority as an
activity to the one who represents that authority is probably a secondary, but
natural development. In that extended sense ARCH becomes a synonym of ARCWN,
confer the parallel texts Rev 1:5 and Rev 3:14. There are many other examples of
this extended sense of the one being in authority, both in LXX and the NT.
In your list of data you only listed three occurrences of ARCH and two of APARCH
(firstfruits) from the LXX plus one from the NT and you only listed those
instances where ARCH is a translation of ReSHiT. That makes a convincing
argument, but only because you limit your study to ReSHiT "beginning" and
therefore end up "proving" that since ARCH is used to translate ReSHiT, this
Greek word must mean "beginning" in Rev 3:14.
Iver Larsen
Kolding, Denmark
alice-iver_larsen@wycliffe.org
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