"good" or "better"
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sat Jun 22 11:17:01 EDT 2002
At 7:50 AM -0700 6/22/02, waldo slusher wrote:
>To all:
>
>
>> ANQRWPWi GUNAIKOS MH hAPTESQAI - a man not to have
>> sexual relations with a
>> woman
>
>It does seem obvious to me that there is no mention of
>"wife" in verse 1.
>
>Many have suggested that the verb hAPTESQAI is a
>euphemism for at least some form of sexual behavior. I
>assume this is correct, but can someone point me to a
>few examples of this outside the Bible. After all,
>that is why I am learning Greek... I like to go to the
>source.
Here's LSJ:
haptô , fut. hapsô: aor. hêpsa:--Pass., pf. hêmmai, Ion. hammai Hdt.1.86 :
fut. hapsomai Od.9.379 , haphthêsomai( [sun-] ) Gal.3.311:--Med., v.infr.
(cf. heaphthê):--fasten or bind to, ...
III. 5. have intercourse with a woman, Pl.Lg.84ca, Arist.Pol.1335b40, 1
Ep.Cor. 7.1; eunês E.Ph.946 .
----------
I wouldn't call this a euphemism at all (and I wouldn't gloss it with
"touch"; I earlier suggested "become attached to"), but rather one of the
metaphorical extensions of the middle notion in hAPTOMAI with genitive,
"cling to."
--
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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