[B-Greek] James 1:25 KATENOHSEN GAR hEAUTON (Follow-up)

Jonathan Robie jonathan.robie at datadirect.com
Fri Sep 12 08:56:27 EDT 2003


>At 10:17 AM -0400 9/11/03, Carl W. Conrad wrote:
> >At 7:02 AM -0400 9/11/03, Jonathan Robie wrote:
> >>I have a question about the phrase KATENOHSEN GAR hEAUTON in James 1:25.
> >>The word KATANOEW can mean "to look at in a reflective manner", 'consider',
> >>'contemplate', and seems to be translated this way in some translations -
> >>"he regards himself", "he looked carefully at himself", etc.
> >>
> >>However, in this context, it seems that (1) KATENOHSEN is in the Aorist,
> >>(2) the mirrors of the time were made of polished metal, and gave a much
> >>less distinct image, and (3) this man goes away and immediately forgets
> >>what he looks like.
> >>
> >>I'm inclined to say the force of this phrase is something like: "he glanced
> >>at himself". Am I wrong? If I'm not clearly wrong, am I clearly right?
> >
> >
> >The text is preceded by: hOTI EI TIS AKROATHS LOGOU ESTIN KAI OU POIHTHS,
> >hOUTOS EOIKEN ANDRI KATANOOUNTI TO PROSWPON AUTOU EN ESOPTRWi", which I
> >take to mean, "For anyone who hears the word and does not do it is like a
> >man who looks in the mirror at the face he was born with," and the text
> >then goes on: KATENOHSEN GAR hEAUTON KAI APELHLUQEN KAI EUQEWS EPELAQETO
> >hOPOIOS HN. "he looked at himself and went away and immediately forgot what
> >he looked like."

Yes, that's precisely why I was thinking it unlikely that he had looked 
intensely at his own image in the mirror, which inspired the original 
question. If he did look at himself carefully over time, this would be a 
gnomic Aorist, but I think that unlikely, given the context. Do you agree? 
This guy didn't look at himself carefully for an extended time, did he?

So if the verb is capable of meaning just a quick, superficial look, that's 
how I would render it. But morphologically, the verb seems to indicate 
really settling your mind down on something. Most of the uses in BAGD 
indicate the same - though he says it can mean just to take a look, citing 
only the James passage for this. Maybe the James passage is  enough to draw 
that conclusion, but I want to be careful here...

Jonathan 




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