[B-Greek] Rom 12:1 LATREO

Barry nebarry at verizon.net
Thu Nov 6 16:51:56 EST 2003


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <KENBFRAZIER at aol.com>
To: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 06, 2003 9:27 AM
Subject: [B-Greek] Rom 12:1 LATREO


> It is obvious I am merely a beginner in studying Greek:

> In Romans 12:1 I have seen LATREO translated as "service" and "service of
> worship".  Different implications are drawn from this difference.
>
> What does this word mean?  Will I get as many different answers from Greek
> scholars, as I have from students of the English Bible?  If so, why?  How do
we,
> 2000 years later, know what a word means....?
>
> Having followed this bulletin board only for a few weeks, I've noticed there
> are many questions about the precise meaning of a passage, and many opinions
> (based on years of scholarship) about the answer.  How does a scholar or a
> preacher of the gospel handle the fact that there is so much we cannot be
truly
> certain of?

Ken, you've gotten some very spiritual, but very good answers.  Let me suggest
something a bit more pragmatic:

We know what the words mean because we've got lots and lots of Greek literature
from practically the entire period of the language.  We can therefore figure out
the semantic range of a word synchronically by examining the literature
available at the time the document we are examining was written.  We also can
normally trace the diachronic development of the word to see how it got to mean
what it does in the time period and the literature which concerns us.  Even with
true hapax legomena (once only appearences of a word), there are usually several
etymologically related terms available, so that looking at these, combined with
the context in which our word appears, means that we can have a very good idea
of what it means in that context.  In the case of the NT literature, most of the
words are used in multiple contexts even within the body of the NT, and those
that aren't are attested elswhere.  The few hapaxes that appear are normally
coinages, such as QEOPNEUSTOS, which are transparent on the surface, and even
clearer in context.

Fortunately, the lexicographers have done all the hard work of investigating all
this, and in general, their work is very dependable (where it isn't often
produces dissertations and journal articles).  Why, then, do people, even our
published translations, argue over the meaning of certain words in certain
passages?  Well even a lexically rich language such as Greek produces words
which have a fairly wide semantic range.  The context is not always sufficiently
clear to every interpreter to establish beyond a shadow of a doubt precisely
what part of the semantic range was in the author's mind when he wrote, and so
discussion, dialogue, and debate ensues.

N.E. Barry Hofstetter
Associate Pastor, Chinese Gospel Church
Professor of Theological and Biblical Studies
 The Center for Urban Theological Studies
         Philadelphia, PA
http://mysite.verizon.net/vze1yfx7/




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