[B-Greek] First Corinthians 14:18

Mark Wilson emory2oo2 at hotmail.com
Wed Sep 24 08:42:07 EDT 2003


Carl wrote:


> >All it says is "more than you all." It probably does NOT mean that he 
>speak
> >more languages inasmuch as the "tongue-speaking" under discussion here
> >would seem, from the immediate context of 1 Cor 12-14 to refer to 
>ecstatic
> >speech as a religious phenomenon rather than to the languages of human
> >culture.


I find it hard to believe that THIS is moving into theological discussions. 
Clearly one must translate/interpret what is going here. Carl, in my 
opinion, has chosen a way of understanding
the Greek text. He indicates that this tongues speaking "would seem" to be 
ecstatic speech,
not that IT IS. One must come to an understanding of what this speaking in 
languages is when
wrestling with the Greek text only. Or, are we to leave it in its Greek form 
and pretend we
cannot translate it?

Iver has indicated that the adverb modifies the verb and therefore it cannot 
mean that
one speaks "more languages." This is NOT at all true. It does modify 
speaking, of course,
but that says nothing as to whether or not the speaking is look upon with 
frequency
or number of languages. Since GLWSSA is plural, we already know that there 
are MORE THAN
ONE LANGUAGE being referenced. Paul tells us that there are many kinds of 
languages,
hETERWi GENH GLWSSWN. So, yes, the understanding that Paul speaks more 
species (GENH)
of languages than others makes perfect sense grammatically.

Carl said it "probably" doesn't refer to number of languages because of his 
understanding
of GLWSSA. Iver says it does not refer to number of languages because the 
adverb modifies
the verb, "not the noun." But Mitch's question was "can" it mean both, and 
the answer is Yes.

I may be out of line here, but I think we all need to grow up a little. One 
can not respond
to any post without some predisposition toward the Greek text. Mentioning, 
in passing, an understanding one has of the Greek text, such as "ecstatic 
speech," is not entering into theological
discussions. We all knew what Carl meant. He was not peddling some theology. 
If you ask me, we
can't keep pretending that we can be totally objective in this forum. Having 
said that, I AM all for
keeping theological discussion out of this forum!

And finally, we all know when someone crosses the line into peddling some 
theological position.

Oh well, just venting.

Mark Wilson

_________________________________________________________________
Instant message with integrated webcam using MSN Messenger 6.0. Try it now 
FREE!  http://msnmessenger-download.com




More information about the B-Greek mailing list