From: Brent Hudson (brent@riveroflifembchurch.com)
Date: Wed Feb 06 2002 - 11:00:15 EST
>But in any case there's a real misunderstanding here--failure to realize
>that the root ADELF- involved here refers to both ADELFOS "brother" and
>ADELFH "sister"--and that "brotherhood" was clearly enough understood until
>recent years to refer to a sense of human solidarity as well as to some
>sort of "male bonding." And there's a misunderstanding too of the
>relationship of GENDER to lexical meaning in the case of words not
>referring to male or female persons or animals.
Of course you are correct Carl, however, as you know, the generation now entering University were born c. 1983 and these have had much less exposure to the older terms like "brotherhood" used in an inclusive manner. Now it is more likely to be understood as a term referring to male members of a group or club. Since ADELF- is not gender specific and FILADELFOS is also an available form, it is understandable why such a question would be asked -- particularly, since the root ADELF -- while neutral itself -- is the root for familial terms that are gender specific (i.e., ADELFH / ADELFOS). Perhaps the question of how best to translate this term today would be more suited for the b-translation list.
The think the best thing for people to do is to look these words up in a modern lexicon (it's time to put away Thayer folks!). It is pretty clear from BDAG, BAGD, and L-N that FILADELFIA is not meant as a gender specific term.
Brent Hudson
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