ANHR, TIS, Bauer/Danker lexicon, and NET
Wayne Leman
wayne_leman at sil.org
Fri Jun 7 14:43:00 EDT 2002
Carl posted:
> A message from Wayne Leman originally posted to BT:
Thanks, Carl.
<snip>
> Wayne has also posted there what I personally thought was a good
> discussion of the question by Dan Wallace.
Prof. Wallace has given me (Wayne) permission to forward his comments, so
here they are (this will be easier than struggling with the message archives
of the Bible Translation discussion list to find the words from Dan there):
Can Greek aner ("man") sometimes mean "person"?
by Dr. Daniel B. Wallace
BDAG gives three basic definitions to aner, each backed up with numerous
texts: (1) "an adult male, man husband"; (2) "equiv. to tis someone,
person"; (3) "a transcendent figure." Under def. 2, they give the following
texts: Luke 9.38; 19.2; John 1.30; Rom 4.8; Luke 5.18; Acts 6.11; Luke 8.27;
Acts 10.1; Jas 1.12. As well, several non-NT texts are listed, including:
Sir 27.7; Ps 32.2; 1 Macc 12.1; 13.34; 1 Macc 7.7; Ignatius: Eph 4.2; 20.2;
Trallians 13.2; Smyrnaens 5.1; Polycarp 1.3. The entry in the lexicon, in
fact, has very little in terms of definitions and glosses here. Instead,
most of this point is filled with data.
Let's examine some of those texts to see if they have an adequate basis for
this judgment. Luke 9.38 has aner while the parallel in Matt 17.14 has
anthropos. John 1.30 has aner while 1.15 uses simply the masculine singular
participle for the same statement from the Baptist. But in none of these
texts is aner clearly used for simply person in such a way that a woman
could fill the slot. Perhaps by this BDAG is simply noting that aner is
sometimes used when the maleness of the individual is not emphasized.
Still, I would have dropped these passages from the lexicon. Luke 5.18
is more promising, since it speaks of four men (aner) carrying a lame
man. If Luke used Mark as his sole source here, then Luke is either
interpreting the four who carried the lame man as four men (since Mark
does not specify), or else aner can sometimes be used more generically
for person. I would reject Acts 6.11, since in Jewish courts of the day
the testimony of men was regarded as significantly greater than the
testimony of women. I think the use of aner here is simply in keeping
with Jewish custom (even the NRSV has 'men' here). Romans 4.8 and
Jas 1.12 are the best instances in the NT, I believe, for there the generic
principle can hardly apply only to adult males! Aren't women whose sin
is not imputed to them also blessed by the Lord? And don't women who
persevere under trial also receive a crown of life? I think that BDAG
would have made out a better case if they had put the other NT texts in
a dubious category, while retaining the principle clearly for Rom 4.8 and
Jas 1.12. As for the non-NT passages, in Ignatius' letter to the Ephesians
4.2, as well as his letter to the Trallians 13.2, he speaks of "man by man"
(kat' andra). But in Eph 4.2 the usage refers to those who sing praises to
Jesus Christ--it can hardly refer just to the men. In Trall 13.2, it refers
to those in the church who are to be loved: "love one another, man by
man, with an undivided heart." Again, this can hardly refer to adult males
only. The same idiom is used in Smyr 5.1 and Poly. 1.3. These references
are all from Ignatius, a bishop who died no later than AD 117. He is thus
nearly contemporaneous with the NT writers. It is highly unlikely that he
started to use the word aner in a way that was significantly broader than
its usage a few decades earlier in the NT writings. But more can be said:
the LXX also uses the word more broadly than to mean merely adult male.
Sirach 27.7 has a synthetic parallel between the two lines: in the first is
aner and in the second is anthropos, both in the plural ("Praise no man
before he speaks, for it is in this manner that men are tested"). This seems
to be an excellent illustration of the point that BDAG want to make.
Ps 32.2 is what is quoted in Rom 4.8. In one or two of the passages in
1 Maccabees use the idiom aner hos ('a man who') which, in BDAG's
estimation, is equivalent of simply "who."
All in all, the evidence is not great that aner sometimes refers to a person
rather than specifically to an adult male. But it is compelling enough, in
some of these examples, to warrant its force as a legitimate meaning for the
term in Koine Greek.
Preference in most passages should be given to adult male as the meaning,
but certainly not in all.
Daniel B. Wallace
Professor of New Testament Studies,
Dallas Theological Seminary
This file is also posted at URL:
http://biblepacesetter.org/bibletranslation/
(Click on the link "Downloadable files)
--------
poster (or imposter, whichever the case may be),
Wayne
-----
Wayne Leman
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