[B-Greek] Jas 4:4

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Mon Mar 8 05:48:06 EST 2004


At 10:02 PM -0800 3/7/04, Matthew T. Williams wrote:
>I've been reading through James and as I came to this verse a thought
>occurred (whether good or bad you judge):
>
>MOICALIDES, OUK OIDATE hOTI H FILIA TOU KOSMOU ECQRA TOU QEOU ESTIN;
>
>My thought is this....In light of James' use of the word MOICALIDES could he
>be connoting something more than mere "friendship" in his use of FILIA?
>Most all translations I know of choose the word "friendship" to translate
>FILIA (although the Message has "flirting"), I almost have the hunch that
>given the proximity to the word MOICALIDES James might be suggesting
>something along those lines, i.e. a more intimate relationship than mere
>"friendship". (cf. Prov and Sir in the LXX).
>
>Any comments would be welcome.

I think one might use "devotion to the world" and "hostility to God" for
these "objective" genitive expressions, but I would be a bit wary of
suggesting any hints or under/overtones of sexuality in FILIA and ECQRA
here on the basis of MOICALIDES. I think it's more likely that the
husband-wife-prostitute language associated especially since Hosea in the
prophetic tradition with Israel's covenant fidelity or lack thereof is in
play here.
-- 

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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