1 Corinthians 13:8 part of it
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Oct 17 07:58:49 EDT 2002
The question raised by Waldo Slusher has been discussed previously on
B-Greek and I have had my own input into it, since it does focus on a
"supposed" difference in voice between the forms of PAUW and KATARGEW in
the verse in question. As I have stated in the past, I think it is wrong to
view KATARGHQHSONTAI and KATARGHQHSETAI as "passives"; the -QH- aorists and
future morphoparadigms, as I have endeavored to show repeatedly on b-greek,
are NOT distinctly passive but are, like the MAI/SAI/TAI; MHN/SO/TO
morphoparadigms, bearers of EITHER middle OR passive semantic sense
depending upon the context, and in particular depending upon the clear
indication of an agent. Further clarification of this may be found (in the
list-archives) in a message I sent to the list on Wed, 10 Oct 2001 14:47:29
-0400 with subject-header, "[b-greek] Re: PAUW in the middle." I am not
going to belabor the point here; I really do hope in the very near future
to have ready a revised version of my May 1997 long message entitled,
"Observations on Greek Voice."
>Date: Wed, 24 Nov 1999 08:24:50 -0600
>To: Biblical Greek <b-greek at franklin.oit.unc.edu>
>From: "Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu>
>Subject: Re: 1 Corinthians 13:8 - Why does Paul use different verbs?
>
>At 3:36 PM -0600 11/23/99, Dwayne Riner wrote:
>>I am writing an exegetical paper on 1 Corinthians 13:8-13 and I noticed
>>that Paul uses KATARGHQHSONTAI for both PROFHTEIAI and GNWSIS. Yet, for
>>GLWSSAI he uses the verb PAUSONTAI. I was wondering if anyone has done any
>>research concerning Paul's purpose in changing verbs.
>
>I think you ought to consider that it may have no other explanation that
>rhetorical variation--that's what I'm most inclined to think; on the other
>hand, it may be that GLWSSAI is being perceived as something more of a
>physical manifestation, since they are not declared to be intelligible in
>their own right but to require interpretation. You might take EITE GLWSSAI,
>PAUSONTAI to mean, "And if there are tongues, they will stop wagging." It
>does appear to me that PROFHTEIAI and GNWSIS are more internal than
>external, more spiritual than physical, as it were. But at the same time, I
>think that KATARGEW is a more general term, used here in the future middle
>in the sense of "atrophy." In the literary paraphrase of 1 Cor 13 that I
>did for my daughter's wedding several years ago, I rendered verse 8 as
>follows:
>
>"Loving-kindness will always have a role to play.
> But someday great issues will no longer matter;
> someday eloquence will have nothing to say;
> someday throbbing angelic ecstasy will be hushed;
> and someday profound insights will be irrelevant."
>
>I underscore that this is a paraphrase and that it glosses PROFHTEIAI and
>GNWSIS in ways that some may think illegitimate, but I have tried to retain
>the original "tongues of men and of angels" of verse 1 in two clauses on
>GLWSSAI, and I have tried to exercise the same sort of rhetorical
>"variatio" in the verbs that seems to me to be involved in the original of
>Paul. The original is: hH AGAPH OUDEPOTE PIPTEI: EITE DE PROFHTEIAI,
>KATARGHQHSONTAI, EITE GLWSSAI, PAUSONTAI; EITE GNWSIS, KATARGHQHSETAI.
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 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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