Philippians 1:9-11
alexali
alexali at surf.net.au
Tue Sep 21 08:13:04 EDT 1999
I have been following the Phil 1:9-11 strand with more interest than time.
Michael Haggert wrote of DIAFERW and its meaning, "I'm not at all sure that
DIAFERW ever means 'be better than' except by a tortuous route. Apart from
the fairly obvious 'carry across' meaning, the other meaning is either 'to
be different' or 'to make a difference'."
I rather think that to speak of DIAFERW as having a "fairly obvious"
meaning and an "other" meaning is a little unkind to the word, for it has a
breadth of meanings. I've recently been reading some of the papyri from
early POxy volumes; to allude to just a few of the meanings as
illustrative of its breadth: It is used at POxy 67.16 in the sense of
"belong to" (which is fairly common): TWN hHMIN DIAFERONTWN OIKOPEDWN 'the
estates belonging to us'; at POxy 237 7 29, concerning the (disputed)
right of a father to take his married daughter away from her husband, a
praefect deciding a similar case is quoted as determining that DIAFEREI
PARA TINI BOULETAI EINAI hE GEGAMHMENH, where the sense is related to the
meaning, "differ" but is stronger: 'it depends with whom the wife wishes to
live'; it happened that yesterday, before my daily digest arrived, I'd
just read a marriage contract, POxy 265.17, where it says of the husband
and wife, EAN DE TI DIAFERWNTAI PROS ALLHLOUS
Now, if this protasis
meant simply 'if they differ / are different' we would concur, "Viva la
difference!" But a second element is added to the protasis, KAI BOULHTAI
SARAPOUS APALLASSASQAI APO TOU DIONUSIOU 'and if Sarapous wishes to be
divorced from Dionysios' (with the apodosis being that then Dionysios must
pay back the dowry); for in this case DIAFERW has that stronger idea of
'differ' that is 'quarrel' (with some of the emotion of the phrase
'irreconcilable differences' that is used here in Australia if not
elsewhere). (The word is uncertain at POxy 265.17, the restoration being
based on the use of this sense in other marriage contracts, eg POxy 496.8;
compare also the use of DIAFORA at POxy 267.19. These are accessible
through the Duke Data Bank of Documentary Papyri at the Perseus site.)
This may suffice to indicate that it is not a matter of DIAFERW having an
'obvious meaning' and an 'other' meaning; and there are a variety of
meanings other and more common than those I've briefly mentioned, as can be
seen through consulting LSJ. The sense 'surpass, excel', then, is no more
'tortuous' than others of its shades of meaning. (As to this being
tortuous, perhaps compare the preposition PARA with its basic sense of
'beside' which gives rise to a sense " 'compared with' usually implying
superiority" (LSJ, C. with Acc., I.7), where this same shift from
comparison to superiority is seen.)
Nor is the recognition of the meaning 'surpass, excel' recent. Shedd, in
his Commentary on Romans, first published in 1879, speaks of the phrase
DOKIMAZEIS TA DIAFERONTA in Romans 2:18, and is worth quoting in view of
the close parallel to our current passage. He writes, 'This clause will be
explained, according as the several significations of the words are chosen
and combined. DOKIMAZEIN may mean: 1. To examine or test, as in Luke
14:19, 1 Cor 3:13, 1 John 4:1; 2. To understand, or discern (a result of
the act of examining), as in Luke 12:56, Romans 12:2, 2 Cor 8:22, Ephesians
5:10; 3. To approve of, or to like (another result of examining), as in 1
Cor. 16:3, Romans 1:28, 14:22. DIAFEREIN may mean: 1. To differ,
merely, as in Gal. 2:6, 4:1; 2. To differ for the better, i.e. to excel,
as in Matthew 6:26, 12:12, 1 Cor. 15:41. Hence, several renderings of the
clause: 'Thou approvest the things that are more excellent' (Eng. Version);
2. 'Thou discernest the things that are obligatory' (Peshito); 3. 'Thou
testest the things that differ' (Erasmus); 4. 'Thou discernest the things
that differ.' "
Shedd prefers the last in the Romans passage and considers it also "the
better rendering of the parallel passage in Phil. 1:10, because in verse 9
the writer mentions 'knowledge' and 'judgement' as the particular means by
which his readers DOKIMAZEIN TA DIAFERONTA." My own opinion inclines to
the view that the sense of DIAFERW is that stronger sense of "surpass,
excel" and that Paul's desire is that they should 'discern those things
that excel/are better'.
Dr Alexander Hopkins
Melbourne, Australia
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