[B-Greek] ASQENESTERWi in 1Peter 3
Mark Wilson
emory2oo2 at hotmail.com
Wed May 14 17:52:12 EDT 2003
Waldo:
You asked:
-------
>Does anyone have any ideas as to how ASQENHS fits this
>context? Is TIMH given because of this weakness of the
>wife? I do not really follow the connection to
>rendering TIMH because of ASQENHS. Are there other
>nuances of ASQENHS that might work better than
>weakness?
--------
After doing some research on ASQENHS at Perseus, I decided to send a
suggested different translation to the NET Bible committee for their next
printing.
Beginning with a hunch, what I found was that my hunch was not that
farfetched. Behind the idea of "being weak" is the attendant idea of being
"vulnerable." I found this to be the case in many of the texts I checked.
You will find that cities that have been reduced to "weakness" after losing
a battle, are not just weakened, but become vulnerable to further attacks.
ASQENHS is used of a child. I can think of few descriptions that better fit
a child than one of being vulnerable. They are one of the most vulnerable in
society.
I took this "root" idea of "vulnerability" and applied it to a woman. It
seems obvious to me that vulnerable can be both viewed negatively or
positively. I took the positive aspect and applied it to the wife of which
Peter speaks.
Give honor to the wife, who is the more vulnerable partner.
I don't think Peter is saying that we ought to give honor to the wife
because we can lift a bigger rock than she can. Rather, I think he is
referring to a feminine, godly vulnerability that is so attractive to the
male. It's that beautiful quality of a wife that the husband is graced to
protect.
I think that to some extent, this is the reason the serpent approached the
woman, not the man in the garden of Eden. She was the more vulnerable. But I
do not mean vulnerable in the sense of being gullable or stupid. Rather I am
referring to a feminine vulnerability that women possess, and this
vulnerability is an inherent part of the female soul.
I realize this may seem like quite an exaggeration on the surface, and a bit
much for a brief lexical study, but I have done further research. I did
offer to the NET Bible committee to provide far more data than I orginally
did. But I feel well within bounds of the semantics of ASQENHS to offer the
translation: the more vulnerable partner.
My thoughts,
Mark Wilson
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