Didache 1:3 POIA GAR CARIS

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Aug 25 07:22:00 EDT 1999


At 2:49 AM -0400 8/25/99, Jonathan Robie wrote:
>Didache 1:3 POIA GAR CARIS is translated by Kirsopp Lake as "what credit is
>that to you". My stubborn brain can't figure out how to construe POIA and
>CARIS to obtain that meaning. Zerwick finds this likely, too. Are there
>other places where CARIS means "credit"?
>
>However, Luke 6:32-34 has POIA hUMIN CARIS, three times, in a parallel
>passage, and NASB translates this as "what credit is that to you". Matthew
>5:46 has TINA MISQON ECETE, which is a very similar meaning.
>
>By the way, I can't remember who recommended the Didache as light reading,
>but it really is quite easy to read, especially as many of the phrases echo
>phrases that are familiar from the New Testament.

CARIS, like Latin GRATIA, is hard to get a handle on (I think I dealt with
this some time ago, a year or longer) because it is essentially a
reciprocal notion. Perhaps the nearest thing to it in English in its most
basic sense is "gratification"; it is an expression of good will that earns
a responsive expression of good will. The older Attic phrase for "express
thanks" is CARIN GNWNAI--'to acknowledge a favor.' In that sense you might
take POIA CARIS hUMIN? as equivalent to "what acknowledgement have
you?"--i.e. what have you done to earn God's favor and what favor do you
think you have with God as a consequence of what you've done?

Here's Louw & Nida on CARIS:
------------
5.89 CARIS, ITOS f: a favorable attitude toward someone or something -
'favor, good will.' ECONTES CARIN PROS hOLON TON LAON 'having the good will
of all the people' or 'all the people were pleased with them' Ac 2:47;
hEURES GAR CARIN PARA TWi QEWi  'for you have found favor with God' or 'for
God is pleased with you' Lk 1:30.
33.350 CARIS, ITOS f: : an expression of thankfulness - 'thanks.' TWi DE
QEWi CARIS TWi DIDONTI hHMIN TO NIKOS  'thanks be to God who gives us the
victory' 1 Cor 15:57.64
------------

I'd note particularly that usage in Acts 2:47 where ECONTES CARIN PROS
hOLON TON LAON is probably a bit more ambiguous than the version offered;
I'd make it "being in favor with all the people"--it implies mutuality of
good will, readiness on the part of both sides to be kind to each other and
to acknowledge the good will of the other.

So "credit" is not at all unreasonable: it is "acknowledgement of a service
rendered." To paraphrase Rodney Dangerfield, I keep doing nice things for
you, "but I don't ever get any credit."


Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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