[B-Greek] Antonyms?
Maurice A. O'Sullivan
mauros at iol.ie
Sat Jan 3 13:49:23 EST 2004
At 16:53 03/01/2004, Arie Dirkzwager wrote:
>In Luke 6: 20 you find only "poor". The Hebrew word 'anaw, probably the
>origin of PTWCOS, has different meanings: poor in money and poor (humble) in
>the spirit.
Of the 34 occurrences of PTWCOS in the N.T, 10 are in Luke -- which gives
added significance, I think, to the fact that in 21:2 Luke uses PENICROS.
This is a hapax in the N.T, and only occurs three times in the LXX -- Ex.
22:24; Pr. 28:15, 29:7. [ In the MT of these verses, 'anaw does not appear.].
But there are strong overtones of oppression about all three uses of
PENICROS in the LXX, thereby, I think, re-enforcing the view of A.G.Wright
in CBQ 44 (1982) 256-263 "The Widow's Mite: Praise or Lament" that these
verses are a lament about oppression and not praise for almsgiving.
I know that Fitzmyer holds that the two terms are used " in these verse
synonymously " -- and that he relies on Aristophenes' definition
[ Plutus 553 ] -- " the life of a poor person ( PTWCOS ) is to live, having
nothing at all, whereas the life of a needy person (PENHS ) is to live
sparingly, dependent on toil " -- but I can't help wondering, though, if
the LXX usage wouldn't have had more influence on Luke than Aristophenes <g>.
Regards,
Maurice
Maurice A. O'Sullivan [ Bray, Ireland ]
mauros at iol.ie
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list