[B-Greek] ARSENOKOITHS: Did I get this right?

Doug Chaplin lists at actually.me.uk
Tue Mar 15 13:45:53 EST 2005


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jim West [mailto:jwest at highland.net]
> Sent: 15 March 2005 17:40
> To: Doug Chaplin; b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] ARSENOKOITHS: Did I get this right?
> 
> 
> >If I am right, then we can't
> >assume that Paul (and / or A N Other) chose the words carefully for a
> >particular meaning in this context, rather that a whole range of words
> >signifying various forms of disapproved behaviour are simply collected
> >together for the overall rhetorical effect, rather than the precise sin.
> >In other words, we probably can't say what *exactly* is being talked
> about,
> >because the intent is only to talk *generally*.
> >This is one case where the linguistic contribution to the broader
> >interpretive question is very limited.
> >
> >Doug Chaplin
> >
> It seems that if Paul wanted to be "general" he would simply have spoken
> of "sin"- as he does, for instance, when he says "all have sinned and
> fallen short of the glory of God".  That he here uses specific words
> means that he has something specific in mind.  Paul can be general when
> he wants to.  Clearly here he doesn't want to- he wants to be specific
> and so he is.  His coining a word shows how interested he is in being
> precise.
> 
> Jim

Er .. a) how exactly do you know Paul coined this word?
b) there are many ways of being general, and a vice list is one such way:
yes it mentions specific sins, but it decontextualises them just enough for
us to be unable to make much more than an etymological guess about what they
mean.

Doug




More information about the B-Greek mailing list