[B-Greek] articles on PEIRASMOS
Jeffrey B. Gibson
jgibson000 at comcast.net
Wed Aug 20 16:11:37 EDT 2003
Jonathan Robie wrote:
>reznik1 at juno.com wrote:
>
>
>
>>I am confused. If the word PEIRAZW has never had such meaning as
>>"temptation", how can we interpret it in this way?
>>
>>
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>Now I am confused. I thought the question being asked was whether PEIRAZW can carry the meaning "to tempt" in the New Testament. Are you saying that it can't because it never had such meaning? But aren't we looking at the text for the very purpose of determining whether it can have that meaning?
>
>Of course, we would do well to consult the conclusions of others who have done such research. BDAG and Spicq agree that PEIRAZW can have this meaning.
>
>And LSJ agrees, providing references to non-biblical literature as well as biblical literature:
>
>II. c. acc. pers., try, tempt a person, put him to the test, LXX Ge.22.1, al. ; heautous peirazete, ei . . 2 Ep.Cor.13.5, al.; ti peirazete ton Kurion ; LXX Ex. 17.2, cf. Act.Ap. 15.10, 1 Ep.Cor. 10.9, al.
>2. in bad sense, seek to seduce, tempt, AthA~^(a)naiA~^(a)n A.R. 3.10 : abs., ho peirazA~?n the Tempter, 1 Ep.Thess. 3.5, etc. :--Pass., to be sorely tried, peirazomenA~^(a) basanizomai PLit.Lond. 52.5 ; stomakakkA~^(a)i Str. 16.4.24 ; to be attacked, hupochusei Alex.Aphr. Pr.2.54 ; epilA~^(a)psiai Cyran.47 ; to be tempted to sin, Ev.Matt. 4.1, al.
>
>So what is your authority for saying that PEIRAZW "has never had such meaning"?
>
>
At least with respect to the Matthean passage, Danker assumes what needs
to be proven and simply repeats without examining what older lexicons
noted, working from a questionable understanding of what the Matthean
passage is all about, was the meaning of the verb.
But several things need to be noted. First, the experience of PEIRASMOS
that Jesus undergoes is divinely ordained. Second, the "adversary", the
one who carries out the PEIRASMOS, is here a divine instrument and does
not carry out his work as an independent agent or one hostile to the
purposes of God. Third, and most importantly, the PEIRASMOS that Jesus
undergoes in Matt. 4:1-11 is intended by Matthew, as the welter of
allusions to and quotations and images drawn from Deuteronomy 6-8 and
the tradition it rehearses show, to be seen as a recapitulation of the
PEIRASMOS experience to which God subjected Israel in the Wilderness.
And this was hardly a "temptation".
So I think that at this point at least, the Lexicons are wrong.
Yours,
Jeffrey
--
Jeffrey B. Gibson
Chicago, Illinois
e-mail jgibson000 at comcast.net
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