[B-Greek] LOGIKOS - again...
Mike Sangrey
msangrey at BlueFeltHat.org
Sat Jan 10 21:09:12 EST 2004
I think I'll make two quick comments in response to Waldo. with this I
think I've said all I'm going to about Rom. 12:1 and LOGIKOS.
On Sat, 2004-01-10 at 16:10, waldo slusher wrote:
<snip>
> Let me add also this: As a lexical rule, no word has a
> "literal" meaning. Words have semantic ranges that can
> vary quite drastically, and without the aide of a
> context, no word has meaning. Before you ask if a word
> is to be taken "literally," you need to first select
> one of its many meanings.
Ironic, isn't it: The resolve 'literal' has for being ambiguous within
a large percentage of potential contexts.
> I think what Mike has done here is zero in on one, and
> only one, of the many and varied meanings of
> "sacrifice." And then, after arbirarily choosing a
> particular meaning, a meaning that is contextless,
> asks if I meant a "literal" sacrifice. <snip>
Actually, I was thinking of the context of Rom. 12:1. That's why I
brought up LATREIA and mentioned Karen Jobes understanding of priestly
duties. The 'priestly duties' brings up the whole framework of the
Jewish sacrificial system. I think in a rather real sense 12:1 is to
bring to mind the picture of Jesus not only performing a priestly duty
but being the sacrifice himself. It's to be the same with us.
Now, to bring this quickly back to the discussion of LOGIKOS and how to
determine its meaning: I whole-heartedly agree that context selects a
specific word's usage.
For me, the issue here boils down to how OUN marries up with the rest of
the letter. In other words, I think there is a huge context. Or more
specifically, first figure out Paul's main argument of chapters 1-11 (or
even 9-11) and then the exhortation here in the first few verses of
chapter 12 seem quite...ummmmm...reasonable. I can't get into it here
for it runs too far afield. (And, anywho, posting a commentary on
Romans to BGreek would probably be frowned on by Carl <laugh>)
However, I'll say that I don't think 'metaphorical' for LOGIKOS is a
good choice. Paul has just built a large foundation before the OUN and
now he is getting into the effect that that massive cause should bring
about. In other words, what is the logical, natural, appropriate,
reasonable effect in us of what God has done in Christ? I think that's
the question he is answering. Because of that it seems quite natural to
me to think in terms of "our 'reasonable' or 'appropriate' priestly
duty" as an accurate translation of THN LOGIKHN LATREIAN hUMWN.
It's a basic corollary of Relevance Theory that the original readers
would have selected--and been expected by the original author to
select--the word's usage requiring the least amount of mental processing
energy. It's Occam's Razor applied to lexical semantics. Choosing
'metaphorical' requires a fair amount of processing to tie it into the
context (at least it does for me--I might be wrong). 'Reasonable' seems
to just flow.
--
Mike Sangrey
msangrey at BlueFeltHat.org
Landisburg, Pa.
"The first one last wins."
"A net of highly cohesive details reveals the truth."
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