[B-Greek] TARTARWSAS -- 2 Peter 2:4
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Apr 16 07:42:48 EDT 2004
At 5:55 PM -0700 4/15/04, Ted Shoemaker 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?
>
>Again, I realize that I have picked a topic that could easily veer
>off-topic. Let us please respect the wishes of those who would ask
>us to keep to the linguistic features of this question while on list.
> Anyone who wants to discuss non-linguistic matters is welcome to
>email me offlist.
>
>Thank you for all replies!
You've already been given a good reply by Cirk Bejnar; I just want to add a
note about the aptness of the verb choice here. First the whole text:
EI GAR hO QEOS AGGELWN hAMARTHSANTWN OUK EFEISATO ALLA SEIRAIS ZOFOU
TARTARWSAS PAREDWKEN EIS KRISIN THROUMENOUS, ...
Although Hesiod, the primary early Greek authority on the emergence and
interrelationships of figures in the Olympian pantheon (Theogony, Works and
Days) never used the word TARTAROW, he did relate how Zeus cast individual
Titans and all the QEOI who rebelled against his regime into Tartaros so
that such consignment became a "canonical" image of divine management of
rebel subordinates. BDAG notes "Tartarus, thought of by the Greeks as a
subterranean place lower than Hades where divine punishment was meted out,
and so regarded in Israelite apocalyptic as well: Job 41:24; En 20:2;
Philo, Exs. 152; Jos., C. Ap. 2, 240; SibOr 2, 302; 4, 186)"
--
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/
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list