PAIS vs hUIOS

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sat Aug 31 10:48:55 EDT 2002


At 9:58 AM -0400 8/31/02, Jonathan B. Ferguson wrote:
>Hello fellow B-Greekers,
>     I was wondering if anyone knew if there was a distinct difference
>between PAIS (child, son, etc.) and hUIOS (son).  The KJV translators
>translated PAIS this way:

While I don't want to generalize too much about the KJV translators, I
don't think I'd consult the KJV as a first resort with regard to these two
words. Look first at any more recent version sooner--unless your question
really is about the KJV translators rather than about the words!

hUIOS is the term for biological or adoptive son; PAIS is the term for a
pre-pubescent child of either gender but is also commonly used for
"servant" (archaic English "boy", French "garçon"). Quite commonly in the
OT (LXX) and in the GNT it seems to represent Hebrew EBhEDh, as in the
"Servant" poems of Second Isaiah. BDAG has a very full article on the
distinct senses and nuances of PAIS; Louw  Nida also make the distinctions
clear in somewhat less detail. My take on the passages you list (I found 24
instances of PAIS in the GNT) is as follows:

>"And as he was yet a coming, the devil threw him down, and tare him. And
>Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the ***child***, and
>delivered him again to his father." (Luke 9:42)

Here the context seems to indicate that the PAIS is a child and the son of
the man who referred the problem to Jesus.

>"The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers,
>hath glorified his ***Son*** Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him
>in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go." Acts
>3:13

Here I think the sense is "Servant" rather than "Son."

>"Unto you first God, having raised up his ***Son*** Jesus, sent him to
>bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities." Acts
>3:26

Here too I think that "Servant" is probably the preferred sense.

>"For of a truth against thy holy ***child*** Jesus, whom thou hast
>anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the
>people of Israel, were gathered together," Acts 4:27

"Servant" here too.

>"And they brought the ***young man*** alive, and were not a little
>comforted." Acts 20:12

This one's interesting and decidedly different: in 20:9 Eutychus is
described as a NEANIAS; I suspect that the KJV translators took their cue
from 20:9 in translating PAIS in 20:12 as "young man." But if he was a
NEANIAS in the proper sense, he's more likely to have been a "servant" than
a "child." I see that TEV uses "young man" in 20:9 and "boy" in 20:12. I
think that's better, since we DO use "boy" in current English for an older
adolescent or even a youth older than a teen-ager.
-- 

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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