[B-Greek] TARTARWSAS -- 2 Peter 2:4

Cirk Bejnar eluchil404 at yahoo.com
Thu Apr 15 21:31:45 EDT 2004


--- Ted Shoemaker <tedsmath at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Usually, we can determine a lot of the meaning of a
> NT Greek word
> from its extrabiblical use.  When the word under
> study was originally
> used in a sense that is conflisting with Jewish or
> Christian
> concepts, how much of the semantic content can we
> then import to the
> NT usage of that word?
> 
> I am thinking of TARTARWSAS in 2 Peter 2:4.  Surely
> the writer would
> not have early Christian readers to accept at face
> value everything
> that had been written about Tartarus?
>
> Ted Shoemaker

I will make two general observations and then discuss
Tartarus briefly.  

When discussing a new or foreign concept it is a
common strategy to apply a word that has a distinct
but somewhat related meaning.  Consider the primary
meanings of car, screen, disk, and file 100 years ago
and how they got to mean what they do today.

Secondly, in regards to the particular concept
represented by Tartarus the origin of the word 'hell'
is worth considering.  It was an Old English word with
a mythological associations of its own but it was
taken and used by the Christians for their own
purposes and the original stories that featured it are
lost.

As for TARTAROS itself LSJ just gives the definition
"the nether world generally" with various citations
from Homer on (including Job 40:15 and 41:23).  So it
can be used as a general word for the Underworld of
the Dead.  Perhaps, even, less fraught with
mythological associations that hAIDHS which is one of
main Olympian gods.

Cirk R. Bejnar


	
		
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