From: Maurice A. O'Sullivan (mauros@iol.ie)
Date: Tue Feb 20 2001 - 10:42:20 EST
<x-flowed>
At 13:26 20/02/01, JKandJWilk@aol.com wrote:
>When I began to learn
>biblical greek, I was struck by the similarity of forms of hUSTEREW, meaning
>to lack something (cf. John 2.3 KAI hUSTERHSANTOS OINOU, LEGEI hH MHTHR
>TOU IHSOU...) and hUSTERHMA, meaning poverty (used to describe the state
>of the widow in Luke 21:4, ...hAUTH DE EK TOU hUSTERHMATOS AUTHS PANTA TON
>BION hON EICEN EBALEN). Does anyone know if somehow the words for uterus
>and for poverty/lacking share some distant derivative? If so, what is the
>connection between them and how did a uterus become associated with poverty?
I would suggest that this excerpt from the Louw-Nida lexicon is a necessary
corrective to equating "need" with "poverty".
>>>>>>>>>
57.38 hUSTERHMA -- TOS n : (derivative of hUSTEREW —to be lacking,'
<a that which is lacking in what is essential or needed - —what is
lacking, what is needed. —the plenty which you have at this time should
make up for what they lack' 2 Cor 8.14; ¿ —the fellow believers supplied
the things I was lacking' 2 Cor 11.9; —but she from what she lacked gave
all that she had to live on' Lk 21.4. In a number of languages the
expression of —lack' may be indicated as —not to have enough' or —not to
possess what one needs' or —not to have what one should
have.'
>>>>>>>>>
And the TDNT makes the point:
>> 4. The nouns hUSTERHMA and hUSTERHSIS are very rare in ancient lit.
apart from the LXX and Chr. writings. <<
but it then goes on to distinguish various meanings for hUSTERHMA --- one
such being:
>>>We have here the underlying expression ANAPLHROUN hUSTERHMA “to fill
up what is lacking,” which is also found in Chr. lit. <<
but pointing out that:
>>hUSTERHSIS always means “want,” “need.”<<
P.S
I regards as the most significant term in the Lukan account of this widow
is that she is described in 21:2 as PENIXROS --- which is a hapax in the
NT, as against PTWXOS, used 10 times in Lk and Ac.,( as in Lk. 4:18, where
the good news has been brought to the PTWXOIS )
What is more, PENIXROS appears only 3 times in the LXX --- Ex 22:24 : Pr
28:15: 29:7 --
always in the sense of being oppressed, whether by money-lenders as in Ex
or the " wicked " as in Pr.
Regards,
Maurice A. O'Sullivan [ Bray, Ireland ]
mauros@iol.ie
---
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
</x-flowed>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:36:51 EDT