[B-Greek] Two troublesome words in Polycarp
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Apr 1 14:01:57 EST 2004
At 3:10 PM +0200 4/1/04, Christopher Culver wrote:
>I'm currently reading Polycarp's epistle to the Philippians, and there are
>two words which confuse me.
>
>The first is "hagioprepesin" (1:1) the dative of an adjective which is
>translated "which are like the saints" in an English translation I have.
>However, I'm unhappy with this translation and am unable to find the word
>in Liddell & Scott. I would be most grateful if someone could either tell
>me what heading it is under in that dictionary, or explain the etymology
>and literal meaning of the work.
BDAG offers the following:
hAGIOPREPHS, ES fitting/proper for one who is holy, holy LOGOI hAGIOPREPEIS
holy words 1 Cl 13:3; DESMOI hAGIOPREPEIS bonds fitting for a saint Pol 1:1.
>The second word is "apeithountwn" (2:1). According to my dictionary, this
>can either mean "of those disobeying" or "of those unbelieving." Which
>meaning is more likely here? While it seems that Polycarp is not directly
>quoting the New Testament, perhaps this word is used there in a specific
>way which may help me understand its use here. Furthermore, perhaps
>someone can tell me how to translate the "hou" beginning that clause.
What's your dictionary? BDAG gives ONLY "disobey" for APEIQEW, which is a
denominative verb from the adjective APEIQHS, which is glossed by BDAG as
"disobedient." Both verb and adjective should be thought of as dependent, I
think, upon the verb PEIQOMAI which may mean "believe" in the sense of 'put
one's confidence in an assertion' but "obey" in the sense of 'demonstrate
one's trust in (a person).'
--
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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