[B-Greek] APOSTASIA

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Fri May 13 22:20:11 EDT 2005


Although this question has been posed before, an inquiry has come in  
regarding the meaning of the word APOSTASIA and the suggestion that  
it should be understood to mean "departure" in GNT usage. There are  
only two instances of this word in the entire GNT and they are as  
follows:

Acts 21:21 KATHCQHSAN DE PERI SOU hOTI APOSTASIAN DIDASKEIS APO  
MWUSEWS TOUS KATA TA EQNH PANTAS IOUDAIOUS LEGWN MH PERITEMNEIN  
AUTOUS TA TEKNA MHDE TOIS EQNESIN PERIPATEIN.

2 Thess 2:3 MH TIS hUMAS EXAPATHSHi KATA MHDENA TROPON. hOTI EAN MH  
ELQHi hH APOSTASIA PRWTON KAI APOKALUFQHi hO ANQRWPOS THS ANOMIAS, hO  
hUIOS THS APWLEIAS,

My own sense, which is, I guess, the standard understanding, is that  
APOSTASIA in both these texts means fundamentally "rebellion." This  
word in older Greek tradition is regularly a political one for an  
uprising against constituted authority; it's a frequent word in  
Thucydides who tells of numerous revolutions in Greek city-states  
during the Peloponnesian War.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at ioa.com or cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/




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