[B-Greek] 2 Corinthians 1:17

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Apr 5 18:19:36 EDT 2005


At 1:38 PM -0700 4/5/05, Zack Hubert wrote:
>Greetings,
>
>After working my way through 1 Corinthians, I thought I was doing pretty
>well, however, I'm totally stumped on this passage.  Here it is for
>reference:
>
>TOUTO OUN BOULOMENOS MHTI ARA THi ELAFRIAi ECRHSAMHN H hA BOULEUOMAI KATA
>SARKA BOULEUOMAI hINA Hi PAR EMOI TO NAI NAI KAI TO OU OU
>
>The NASB renders it as:
>
>Therefore, I was not vacillating when I intended to do this, was I? Or what
>I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, so that with me there will
>be yes, yes and no, no at the same time? (NASB)
>
>What is "ARA THi ELAFRIAi"?  Actually, I could use some help on everything
>before the H conjunction...it's truly a mystery to me :)

Zack, I think some punctuation would help here. NA27 has it

TOUTO OUN BOULOMENOS MHTI ARA THi ELAFRIAi ECRHSAMHN? H hA BOULEUOMAI KATA
SARKA BOULEUOMAI, hINA Hi PAR EMOI TO NAI NAI KAI TO OU OU?

MHTI ARA constitute an interrogative particle with THi ELAFRIAi ECRHSAMHN?
Something like "Surely I didn't engage in sloppy thinking, did I?" More
literally, "I was not employing laxity in some way (was I) when I was
desirous of this?"

CRAOMAI + instrumental dative = "make use of X" but it's very idiomatic and
difficult to metaphrase, perhaps something like "get involved in," "taking
advantage of," "exploiting," etc. Here I think the sense is that Paul is
being wishy-washy in his analysis of his own intentions and purposes.

For ELAFRIA, BDAG offers "condition of treating a matter frivolously, as by
irresponsible change of mind, vacillation, levity"

I won't essay to go beyond "the H conjunction," as you put it.
-- 

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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