[B-Greek] 1 Cor 11:7 OFEILEI

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sun Jun 13 11:29:37 EDT 2004


At 10:17 AM -0400 6/13/04, George F. Somsel wrote:
>On Sun, 13 Jun 2004 06:33:10 -0700 (PDT) Eddie Mishoe
><edmishoe at yahoo.com> writes:
>> > >ANHR MEN GAR OUK OFEILEI KATAKALUPTESQAI THN
>> > KEFALHN,
>> > >EIKWN KAI DOXA QEOU hUPARCWN...
>> > >
>> > >Some has translated this as:
>> > >
>> > >"for a man is not obligated to have [his] head
>> > >covered"
>> > >
>> > >
>> > >Would this more likely be "for a man ought not to
>> > have
>> > >[his] head covered"?
>> >
>Carl Conrad
>> > Wouldn't it be far simpler to make it simply, "for a
>> > man ought not to cover
>> > his head"?
>>
>>
>> Carl, yes...if that is what the text is saying. If you
>> look at the translation I inquired about, it reads
>> differently, almost radically so. That translation
>> makes the covering optional, as if Paul has no
>> preference ("not obligated" meaning he may or may
>> not). Whereas yours and mine state what OUGHT to be
>> the case. Which do you think it is?
>>
>> =====
>> Eddie Mishoe
>> Pastor
>>
>______________
>
>Eddie,
>
>Note the preceding verse
>
> PAS ANHR KATA KEFALHS EXWN KATAISCUNEI THN KEFALHN AUTOU
>
>While technically he does have a choice, Paul maintains that the WRONG
>choice brings dishonor upon a man.  I wouldn't exactly say his position
>is "headgear optional."

I believe George is right here about implications of the context. There is,
however, another point, that some verbs of obligation when negated involve
negation of the infinitive, so that OUK OFEILEI KATAKALUPTESQAI may be
understood semantically as indicating "ought NOT to cover ..." This rule
does apply in old Attic to CRH and ANAGKH, so that OU CRH means "should
not" and OUK ANAGKH means "must not." I've never quite ascertained whether
this is the case with OFEILW in Koine.
-- 

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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