[B-Greek] TELEW in 2 Cor 12:9
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Jan 28 15:15:48 EST 2005
At 10:00 AM -0800 1/28/05, Kenneth Litwak wrote:
>--- Iver Larsen <ialarsen at multitechweb.com> wrote:
>
>> >
>> > I heard a presentation last night that argued
>> that
>> > TELEITAI in 2 Cor 12:9 should be rendered with the
>> > standard meaning of TELEIN: to end, finish,
>> rather
>> > than the sense of "make perfect" or "mature" which
>> is
>> > not the way the NT generally uses this verb. This
>> > would then mean that Paul's power was ended by his
>> > weakness, and therefore he depends upon Christ's
>> > power, which is explicitly stated in 2 Cor 12:9b.
>> > That makes sense of the context (whereas the other
>> > meaning for TELEIN does not) and gives TELEW its
>> more
>> > natural, common meaning. Yet, translations
>> virtually
>> > all take the rare meaning needlessly. This seems
>> > compelling to me. Any comments?
>>
>> Hi, Kenneth,
>>
>> hH GAR DUNAMIS [MOU] EN ASQENEIAi TELEITAI
>>
>> TELEW is a difficult word to render in English. It
>> is not so much "end,
>> finish" in the sense of put a stop to something. It
>> is rather "bring to
>> completion, reach a goal".
>>
>> You seem to suggest that the DUNAMIS referred to is
>> Paul's power, but the
>> common interpretation is to take it to refer to
>> Christ's power as in the
>> next sentence.
>
>Iver, I'm suggesting that rendering TELEIN as "make
>perfect" is an unusual meaning for TELEIN, and that
>12:9 can readily be understood as contrasting Paul's
>power (I was not aware of the presence of MOU in some
>MSS) that ends in his weakness (he's weak and cannot
>change it, thus indicating that his power is virtually
>gone) with Christ's power. I realize the common
>interpretation is otherwise, but it may well be, now
>that I've had this pointed out to me, that the common
>interpretation is wrong. (A parallel instance might
>be the many translations that perform eisegesis at 1
>Cor 11:10 in taking EXOUSIAN as "veil" or some other
>"sign of authority," a sense I am 110% positive no
>Greek speaker would have ever granted to EXOUSIAN--so
>much for the common interpretation.) If Paul had
>wanted to say Christ's power was made perfect in
>Paul's weakness, he could have easily used TELEIAW,
>though his only use of this word, in Philippians 3, is
>negative.
There is no verb TELEIAW, and if you mean TELEIOW, that's the denominative
(causative) from the adjective TELEIOS, meaning "cause to be TELEIOS."
Moreover, if you'll look carefully at BDAG s.v. TELEW, §1 "to complete an
activity or process, bring to an end, finish, complete"--the sense is
"consummate", "complete," "satisfy fully," NOT "close out."
--
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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