OMOLOGEW

Maurice A. O'Sullivan mauros at iol.ie
Sat Oct 23 18:26:43 EDT 1999


At 17:43 23/10/99 +0000, Dmitriy Reznik wrote:
>I wonder if the word OMOLOGEW should be translated as "confess". This
>English word seems to me to be too religious. Maybe it is enough to
>translate it as "acknowledge"?

Do you know the Louw-Nida Lexicon of the N.T based on Semantic Domains?
If not, it's worth pointing out that it never assumes ( as you seem to ) 
that there is only one meaning for a particular word.
Furthermore it is written with translators in mind, and what is more, 
translations  into many different languages and dialects ( the authors have 
an African background ); hence it looks beyond merely English usage.

So, in the case of hOMOLOGEW, it starts with three separate sub-domains:
profess,
admit,
declare

Under profess, we get:
  >> to express openly one's allegiance to a proposition or person - `to 
profess, to confess, confession.'  whoever confesses me before people, I 
will confess him before my Father' Mt 10.32.

Under admit,
 >>to acknowledge a fact publicly, often in reference to previous bad 
behavior - `to admit, to confess.'  ........`if we confess our sins' 1 Jn 1.9.
   `they confessed their sins' Mt 3.6. In translating Mt 3.6 in some 
languages, it may be useful to restructure the expression somewhat, for 
example, `they admitted to people that they had sinned' or `they admitted 
publicly to God ...

Under declare,
 >> to make an emphatic declaration, often public, and at times in response 
to pressure or an accusation - `to declare, to assert.' `then I will 
declare to them, I never knew you' Mt 7.23;  `the promise which God had 
declared to Abraham' Ac 7.17.

Finally, you ask:
 >>Was it used with this meaning in common (secular) life?

The answer is yes, but the examples are far too many to quote hear.
Could i suggest you go to:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/lexica.html

This is the Perseus Text Tools and Lexica page. Pick the dictionary you 
want to explore [ perhaps starting with the L & S, and then progressing to 
the massive Liddell, Scott, and Jones ]
BTW, if you wan to view the lexicon  results in Greek, rather than 
transliterated, you will have to go through the initial process of 
downloading the Greek font appropriate to your computer [ if you are using 
Windows, then I suggest using SGreek; don't worry, it sounds more 
complicate than it actually is, and there is a straightforward help page to 
guide you through it ]

Enjoy!

Maurice


"At all times preach the gospel ... and if necessary, use words."

(St. Francis of Assisi)



Maurice A. O'Sullivan  [ Bray, Ireland ]
mauros at iol.ie

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o_sullivanmauric at hotmail.com  ]





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