[B-Greek] Veil: KALUMMA

A. Philip Brown II pbrown at GBS.EDU
Tue Jun 29 12:31:17 EDT 2004


Having just read through Troy Martin's article a day or so ago, I found its
argumentation both in regard to the use of PERIBOLAION in Euripides (Herc.
fur. 1269) and in 1 Cor. 11:15b lacking in cogency.

In the first place, Martin simply asserts that PERIBOLAI' means testicles in
Euripides rather than demonstrating that it must. Coleridge translates the
same line EPEI DE SARKOS PERIBOLAI EKTHSAMHN hHBWNTA MOCQOUS hOUS ETLHN TI
DEI LEGEIN
"After I took on a cloak of youthful flesh, [1270] of all the toils I then
endured what need to tell?"
Perhaps "youth cloaks of flesh" is more literal, but I'm highly skeptical
regarding Martin's take on the passage. (I'm willing to be corrected here,
since my knowledge of classical greek is pretty scanty.) Euripides also uses
the word in Heracles 549 -- clearly in the sense of garment, clothing,
garb -- MEGARA QANATOU TAD' HDH PERIBOLAI' ANHMMEQA.

More germaine to the article's argument, however, is his complete failure to
demonstrate why PERIBOLAION should not be taken in its 'normal' sense "of an
article of apparel that covers much of the body, covering, wrap, cloak,
robe" (BDAG); LEH gloss it in the LXX as "covering, wrap, cloak."
Specifically, note that LSJ do not list 'testicle/testicles' as a sense of
PERIBOLAION, which is strange if it was so clearly used in that sense.

Further, in all the passages Martin cites for this sense of PERIBOLAION the
word occurs in the plural -- which is what one would expect given the nature
of male anatomy -- whereas Paul uses the singular.  Martin again fails to
deal with this grammatical distinction.

The burden of proof for this sense (if it is indeed a 'sense' rather than an
isolated metaphorical referent) of PERIBOLAION lies upon Martin, and IMO, he
has failed to present a case that could be considered strong, let alone
compelling.

Philip Brown

> -----Original Message-----
> From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
> [mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of James Ernest
> Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2004 9:16 AM
> To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: RE: [B-Greek] Veil: KALUMMA
>
>
> Regarding PERIBOLAION rather than KALUMMA and focused on 1 Cor 11:13-15
> rather than 2 Cor 3, so not too much help with Moses but of
> general interest
> with regard to women, veiling, and hair in Hellenistic context, see Troy
> Martin's article in this spring's JBL. The argument, based on
> material from
> Hellenistic medical handbooks and other lit., is that women's hair was
> regarded as a functioning sexual organ--which they were given ANTI
> PERIBOLAIOU, "instead of a testicle" rather than "in place of a
> veil." Seems
> bizarre, but there it is. As the title indicates, the article tries to
> demonstrate this meaning of PERIBOLAION, which you won't find in
> LSJ, BDAG,
> or the commentaries on 1 Cor.: "Paul's Argument from Nature for
> the Veil in
> 1 Corinthians 11:13-15: A Testicle Instead of a Head Covering," JBL 123/1
> (Spring 2004): 75-84. Hence "Paul appropriately instructs women in the
> service of God to cover their hair since it is part of the female
> genitalia."
>
>
> --------------------------------
> James D. Ernest, Ph.D., Editor
> Baker Academic
> jernest at BakerAcademic.com
> http://www.BakerAcademic.com
> --------------------------------
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
> > [mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of J. Ted Blakley
> > Sent: Monday, June 28, 2004 5:20 AM
> > To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> > Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Veil: KALUMMA
> >
> >
> > David,
> >     Ben Witherington has an important discussion of veils in
> > his socio-rhetorical commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians. It's
> > been a while since I have read it but one of the things I
> > found quite valuable is a distinction he makes between veils
> > in Greek society and veils in Roman society. In addition, he
> > argues along with others that Corinth was not a Greek but a
> > Roman city, i.e., Corinthian society at the time of Paul was
> > organized according to Roman sensibilities and not Greek
> > sensibilities, which has a significant impact on how one then
> > interprets what Paul is arguing for in 1 Cor 11.
> >     In addition, Witherington also has some pictures of head
> > coverings.
> >
> > Sincerely,
> > Ted
> >
> > --------------------------------------------------------------
> > --------------
> > ----
> > J. Ted Blakley
> > Ph.D. Candidate St. Mary's College, University of St. Andrews
> > 35 Auldburn Park St. Andrews, Fife KY16 8JD 01334-479843
> >
> > jtb1 at st-andrews.ac.uk
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "David Bielby" <dbielby at bloomingtonvineyard.org>
> > To: "Big Greeks" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
> > Sent: Saturday, June 26, 2004 9:55 PM
> > Subject: [B-Greek] Veil: KALUMMA
> >
> >
> > > I'm looking for an article that deals with KALUMMA in the
> > Hellenists
> > > and
> > the
> > > Jews (ancient).  Also, artwork that may portray the use of
> > KALUMMA.
> > > Does anyone know if it was standard for hellenistic women to wear a
> > > KALUMMA?
> > Can
> > > you cite a reference to help me focus my search on this term?  Also,
> > anyone
> > > who has explored how this may affect passages like: NKJ 2
> > Corinthians
> > > 3:16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil (KALUMMA) is
> > > taken away.
> > >
> > > Thank you!
> > >
> > > David Bielby
> > > www.bloomingtonvineyard.org
> > > dbielby at bloomingtonvineyard.org
> > >
> > > ---
> > > B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
> > > B-Greek mailing list
> > > B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> > > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek
> > >
> > >
> >
> > ---
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> >
>
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