[B-Greek] 1 Cor 14:16 and NET Bible's translation

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Mon Oct 18 06:24:25 EDT 2004


At 7:16 PM -0700 10/17/04, Mitch Larramore wrote:
>EPEI EAN EULOGHiS [EN] PNEUMATI, hO ANAPLHRWN TON
>TOPON TOU IDIWTOU PWS EREI TO AMHN EPI THi SHi
>EUCARISTIAi EPEIDH TI LEGEIS OUK OIDEN
>
>The NET Bible translation has:
>
>Otherwise, if you are praising God with your spirit,
>how can someone without the gift3 say "Amen" to your
>thanksgiving, since he does not know what you are
>saying?
>
>Footnote 3 reads:
>
>3 tn Grk "how can someone who fills the place of the
>unlearned say 'Amen.'"
>
>Can someone share with me how the "how can someone
>without the gift" comes from hO ANAPLHRWN TON TOPON
>TOU IDIWTOU PWS ?
>
>What specifically are the grammatical and syntactical
>(and perhaps even lexical) considerations that permit
>this translation? Please understand I am not
>challenging the translators. I am only trying to
>understand this translation, because it almost looks
>like a "paraphrase" of some kind or another.
>Commentaries I have referenced (admittedly not many
>though) had a hard time with TOU IDIWTOU, so I suspect
>the "without the gift" must relate to this some how.

Mitch, I think that you may find the Louw & Nida note on this word and its
usage in the text in question useful:

27.26 IDIWTHS, OU m: a person who has not acquired systemic information or
expertise in some field of knowledge or activity - 'layman, ordinary
person, amateur.' EI DE KAI IDIWTHS TWi LOGWi, ALL' OU THi GNWSEI 'perhaps
I am an amateur in speaking, but certainly not in knowledge' 2Cor 11:6.
	In 1Cor 14:16 IDIWTHS is used to refer to a class of persons who
were neither unbelievers nor fully instructed Christians, but who were
inquirers or catechumens. In such a context, IDIWTHS may be rendered as
'ordinary, uninitiated' (EPEI EAN EULOGHiS [EN] PNEUMATI, hO ANAPLHRWN TON
TOPON TOU IDIWTOU PWS EREI TO AMHN EPI THi SHi EUCARISTIAi 'when you give
thanks to God in spirit only, how can an ordinary, uninitiated person
taking part in the meeting say "Amen" to your prayer of thanksgiving').
-- 

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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