ARSENOKOITHS/ARRENOKOITHS

Steven Craig Miller scmiller at www.plantnet.com
Tue Mar 7 19:35:20 EST 2000


To: Jeffrey B. Gibson,

JBG: << Using the TLG D Disk, there seems to be only one certain pre NT 
usage of ARSENOKOITHS. And that's Oracula Sibyllina` Oracula 2.73 ... >>

  SCM: << You may very well be correct, but according to the 3rd edition of 
TLG's  "Canon of Greek Authors and Works" Oracula Sibyllina is dated from 2 
BCE to  4 CE ("2 B.C.-A.D. 4"). Are you certain that this Oracle dates 
before the  mid-1st century CE? >>

JBG: << I set my search dates to cut off at the second cent CE and the date 
listing that came up for **this** instance in OS was 2 BCE. >>

James H. Charlesworth, in his "The Old Testament [sic] Pseudepigrapha" 
(1983), writes:

<< The first two books of the Sibylline Oracles are not separated in the 
manuscripts and, in fact, constitute a unit. The work consists of an 
original Jewish oracle and an extensive Christian redaction >> (1:330).

Within the first oracle we find a passage "on the incarnation and career of 
Christ" (so Charlesworth, 1:330). And the Sibylline Oracles 2:34-347 "shows 
clear signs of Christian redaction but it probably not an original 
Christian composition" (so Charlesworth, 1:330). If Charlesworth is 
correct, than your citation from the Sibylline Oracles cannot be guaranteed 
to be pre-Christian.

-Steven Craig Miller
Alton, Illinois (USA)
scmiller at www.plantnet.com
FWIW: I'm neither a clergy-person, nor an academic (and I have no post-grad 
degrees).




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