LSJ 9 entry
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Apr 24 06:14:59 EDT 2002
At 10:31 PM -0700 4/23/02, c stirling bartholomew wrote:
>After looking over the discussion in PT O'Brian I am currently leaning
>toward the DOXA position since it seems to have the least problems. Some of
>the more sophisticated solutions which I didn't try to explain, seem to
>suffer at the hands of Occum (the man with a razor).
In fact, Clay, the man with the (or "a") razor is/was OccAm.
I find it not a little bit curious/amusing that one of the views about
MORFH in the Phil 2 "Christ-hymn" should be DOXA: if ever there was a word
with fuzzy connotation and denotation in the Greek language of antiquity
("opinion," "reputation," "appearance," "glory," ...), this one ranks KAT'
EXOCHN. Spicq (_Theological Dictionary of the New Testament," remarks,
"The semantic evolution of DOXA is probably the most extraordinary in the
Bible. Not once in the LXX (except for Eccl 10:1) or the NT does this noun
mean "opinion." It translates most often the Hebrew KABOD, but also HOD,
PE'ER, TIPH'ERETH. KABOD, from the root KBD, "be heavy," evokes the idea
of weight or that which confers weightiness (cf. 2Cor 4:17, an eternal
weight of glory) and hence esteem or respect, especially power and
wealth.12 In this secular meaning, DOXA can be translated sometimes
"majesty" (2Macc 15:13) or "dignity,"13 sometimes "renown."
Marvelous, isn't it, that a Greek word rooted in the verbal notion (*DOK)
of insubstantial apparition or supposition--subjectivity, if you
like--should come to represent "that which we see of an invisible deity"?
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months:: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad at ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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