Hebrews 12:1-2 and MARTUS

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Jul 9 15:59:09 EDT 1998


At 8:33 AM -0700 7/09/98, dalmatia at eburg.com wrote:
>Carl W. Conrad wrote:
>
>> ...there is always, I think,in the classical and
>> especially in the NT usage a powerful overtone of the original
>> judicial/forensic setting of the word: a MARTUS is a witness in a trial,
>> not a spectator at an event--and the distinctive NT usage is of one who is
>> brought to trial and faces execution for the "testimony" that one offers
>> before the court.
>
>'Tis an interesting turn-around ~ From the witness[es] whose testimony
>gets someone else executed, to the witness[es] being executed for
>their testimony.  'Twould seem that witnessing about material matters
>that can be seen, touched, smelled etc was permitted, whereas
>witnessing about matters of spirit was simply not allowed at some
>point.
>
>The question that arose for me in this arena concerns the relationship
>between MARTUS and hAMARTIA.  Standard Bible class teaching calls the
>latter a 'missing of the mark' or a 'falling short of the mark', and I
>have wondered greatly if it might mean 'that which is un-witnessed',
>or hidden from witnesses, done in secrecy [out of shame or fear of
>being witnessed?], cloaked in darkness so as to be not witnessed,
>etc.  And to date, I have encountered no literature in this approach.
>Is there such a connection?

NO. hAMARTIA, so far as its etymology is concerned, appears to derive
ultimately from an alpha-privative and MER/MOR/MAR "part," "share." The
root sense thus seems to be "not share" or "having no part." But etymology
is a very tricky game, more often than not it's pure guesswork, and the
best guide to meaning is usage, not original derivation.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/



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