[B-Greek] misthapodotes/Hebrews 11:6

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Mar 5 06:03:46 EST 2003


At 11:47 PM -0500 3/4/03, David&Karen Beaulieu wrote:
>> Dear B-Greek,
>>    I am not very skillful at retrieving items which have previously been
>> discussed on b-greek.  Does anyone know if a thread is present regarding
>> this word and its use in this particular context?  I've read that it is a
>> rare, double compound.  Would that mean "rare" in regard to the use of
>these
>> types of words in Scripture?  Can anyone comment as to the significance of
>> its use? Is "reward/er" a good translation of the two words which comprise
>> this word?  Is the concept of reward a good translation for the compound
>> word as well? I notice that the Message translation offers a somewhat
>different sense,
>   "that God cares enough to respond to those who seek him."

The only thread on this that I have found in my archives going back to 1992
results from doing a search for MISQAPODOTHS; it is July 2-3, 1997, but
there's nothing about that word as such (other than misidentification of it
as a substantive participle!). I think that the word itself may be rare,
but I don't think the compounding is so odd, inasmuch as it's compounded of
a noun and the agent-noun of a compounded verb, APODIDWMI, "repay, pay
back." The word must have the sense "one who pays back (for service
performed)." And that sense certainly works well enough here. BDAG
indicates that this and a related noun MISQAPODOSIA are found only in
Hebrews and ecclesiastical literature; Glare's supplement to LSJ notes a
4th-century inscription using MISQAPODOTHS. I would judge then, from what's
said in these resources, that "rare" means that searches of extant
literature, papyri and inscriptions haven't turned up other instances of
the word.
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/


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