[B-Greek] 1 Tim 3:4 What does dignity go with?

Iver Larsen iver at larsen.dk
Mon Dec 12 15:06:20 EST 2005


Hi, Mike,

I have been away from the office for more than a week, but wanted to say a bit about your question.

Most, if not all, respondents appear to favour your second option that SEMNOTHS refers to an attitude of the father 
rather than the children. However, I can see no compelling grammatical, semantic or contextual reason for this, apart 
from the comma added by the editors of the Greek NT. The majority of English versions including RSV and NIV take it to 
refer to the children.

>        TEKNA ECONTA EN hUPOTAGHi META PASHS SEMNOTHTOS
>
> To what does the META prepositional phrase connect?
>
> Is it describing the children and therefore the children are to be
> submissive and supportive of the EPISKOPH and do so in a dignified and
> highly respectful manner?
>
> Or, is it describing the EPISKOPH who is to maintain the children in a
> submissive and supportive role and to do so in a dignified manner.  That
> is, the potential EPISKOPH doesn't throw hissie-fits to get the children
> under control.
>
> It seems to me that the word SEMNOTHS doesn't appear to make a lot of
> sense to apply to children.  The use of PAS makes that possibility even
> more odd.  I mention this since I think this somewhat exegetical
> question really boils down to a lexical semantic one.  And that's where
> I'd like the help (unless someone sees a different pathway to a
> solution).

I don't see any problem with the word referring to the children (I assume they are teenagers rather than toddlers). Carl 
quoted BDAG as saying this about SEMNOTHS:
 "a manner or mode of behavior that indicates one is above what is ordinary and therefore worthy of special respect."
A potential elder ought to be able to have brought up his children so that they are not only obedient to him, but also 
behave in a way that causes others to respect them. They ought to be better behaved than average children of 
non-Christian parents.
The parallel text in Tit 1:7 also has a composite description of the children. First they need to be TEKNA PISTA 
(faithful/believing children) and then they should not be "accusable" of ASWTIA (immorality) or being ANUPOTAKTA 
(insubordinate).
Grammatically, it also seems preferable to me that both prepositional phrases refer to the immediately preceding topic 
of children rather than one referring to children and the other to the further removed topic of the father's behaviour.

Iver Larsen 




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