From: Jeff Young (youngman@triad.rr.com)
Date: Tue Feb 26 2002 - 21:09:35 EST
A question to Carl first. I was curious as to what you meant by "jarring,"
in the phrase below? It's no big deal, I just can't figure out whether it
was
meant in a positive or negative light. Or perhaps that's an illustration of
the
very problem we have here! :-)
I am not nearly the scholar that many are on the list, but it seems to me
that
context is the most reliable source to determine meaning. In that light, the
phrase MORFH DOULOU would inform our understanding of MORFH QEOU,
since we have a significant amount of information revealed in the New
Testament regarding Jesus' as a DOULOU. In that light, the Louw definition
of "nature or character of something," doesn't seem too far off base, since
my study of His life indicates that He did take on the essential nature of a
servant (of course, what do we mean by "essential nature?" :-) ).
(I could say more, but don't want to press this into a broader theological
discussion).
On another note (and this may seem transparent to many), I have often found
that Lexicons will derive their definitions based on context - hence, the
lexicographer's personal understanding/interpretation of the passage in
question will impact his/her definition of the word (this seems especially
true
in instances where NT usage is slim).
Jeff Young
-----Original Message-----
From: Carl W. Conrad [mailto:cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2002 8:20 PM
To: Biblical Greek
Cc: Biblical Greek
Subject: [b-greek] Re: MORFH
At 3:55 PM -0800 2/26/02, Jonathan Burke wrote:
>Greetings,
>
>I have had it represented to me that the Greek word MORFH includes
>within its semantic range the meaning of 'essential nature'.
>
>I cannot find this meaning referred to in LSJ 9, nor can I find
>any examples of it in Greek literature.
[deleted entry from LSJ]
>It has been suggested to me that the final sense here ('kind,
>sort'), encompasses the meaning 'essential nature'.
>Having examined the citations in the reference here, I could
>not see that any of them referred to 'essential nature'.
>
>Everything I can find tells me that the word refers to external
>appearance, to form, fashion, or shape.
>
>What am I missing here?
For my part I've always felt that the difference in Phil 2 between the
sense of MORFH in MORFH QEOU and MORFH DOULOU was jarring, especially if
that notion of "essential nature" is being asserted for MORFH.
You might just want to look at the archives for previous discussions of
this--say, around July 96, June 98, October 98, December 99. I don't know
that there's anything conclusive to be found in these discussions but the
questions have certainly been aired. And it's easier to do such a search
now with Jonathan's new and improved archives (which we may soon be able to
stretch back to 1991).
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months:: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad@ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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