[B-Greek] 1 Timothy 3:15
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Oct 24 07:56:01 EDT 2003
At 12:31 PM -0800 10/24/03, Oscar P Villa wrote:
>Dear friends,
>
>I am trying to understand 1 Timothy 3:15. Could you give me clues as to
>the proper understanding of the function of the genitive ALHQEIAS, as well
>as the words it modifies (?) STULOS and hEDRAIWMA?
Let's have the whole text (I think it's a help to any potential respondent
to have the text of at least the verse in question, if not also relevant
parts of the context) set forth directly with the question):
1 Tim 3:14 TAUTA SOI GRAFW ELPIZWN ELQEIN PROS SE EN TACEI; 15 EAN DE
BRADUNW, hINA EIDHiS PWS DEI EN OIKWi QEOU ANASTREFESQAI, hHTIS ESTIN
EKKLHSIA QEOU ZWNTOS, STULOS KAI hEDRAIWMA THS ALHQEIAS.
The author explains the reasons why he writes: he may not arrive as quickly
as he would like but he thinks it important to expound here what is
essential to involvement/interaction-of-members in the household/family of
God, and he presents this exposition with a profound sense of what the
household/family of God really is: it is the congregation, the gathered
flock of the living
God who is its shepherd; it is the beam holding the weight of Truth and it
is the foundation upon which Truth is constructed. That's something of a
paraphrase and interpretation, but it may get at the substance of what
you're asking.
ALHQEIA here, as BDAG puts it, must be "the CONTENT of what is true", and
specifically, "the content of Christianity as the ultimate truth."
OIKOS QEOU and EKKLHSIA here do not refer to a physical structure or
building but rather to the congregation, the gathered people of God;
nevertheless as elsewhere in Pauline writings, the metaphor of building
construction is used to describe the nature of this
household/family/congregation: it is the community wherein Truth resides,
and as such, it must have/be a solid foundation (hEDRAIWMA) and supporting
beam/I-bar/pillar to uphold the burden of the Truth resident within the
community.
Grammatically then hEDRAIWMA and STULOS are appositional to EKKLHSIA, and
ALHQEIA in the genitive here functions as a sort of objective genitive to a
verbal notion implicit in those nouns inasmuch as they imply an "upholding"
sort of activity: Truth is the burden/charge that the household of God
upholds.
--
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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