[B-Greek] (B-Greek) Two in one bed

CWestf5155 at aol.com CWestf5155 at aol.com
Sat Jul 22 10:45:35 EDT 2006


Iver,
 
In a message dated 7/22/2006 2:56:06 AM Mountain Standard Time,  
iver at larsen.dk writes:

> 1)  The gender of the persons does not appear to be the point of the  
passage.
> While each of these words is certainly masculine in form, at  least two
> issues need to be recognized in terms of the gender  expectations raised by
> the form. First, masculine is a grammatical  "default" for Greek: only if 
the
> person referred to were specifically  conceived of as a female and NOT as
> male, would there be a reason to  use the feminine form. Second, the
> accompanying example speaks of  women, and specifically NOT of men, thus
> using the feminine forms. The  most we can say, is that the referent is not
> required to include a  woman, and must include at least one man. The persons
> involved may be  grammatically identified as man/woman OR man/man; they
> cannot be  woman/woman.
>
> 2) The contrapositioning of DUO with hEIS makes  it clear there is one bed
> being shared by two persons. The point here  is that the two persons 
involved
> are alike in their day-to-day  activities and position. Such likeness serves
> to highlight the drastic  difference in their ultimate experience.

You have explained it very  well, and I totally agree with you on both 
points, which also means that I  will have to
disagree with Cindy's comments. Although modern English  culture dictates 
complete symmetry between genders, that was not 
the case  in the time of the Greek language of the NT.

Iver  Larsen
 
This is importing too much into the metaphor or rather the  inference of the 
second point is on the wrong track--the two are alike in  something that is a 
common human experience across age, status and gender  (unlike the women 
grinding).  As has been previously pointed out, a father  shares a bed with his 
children (Luke 11:7).  The alikeness of sharing  a bed clearly is not limited to 
people who share the same activities and  position/status.  While the women 
grinding may indicate this kind of  symmetry, the meaning of the metaphor here 
looks like one of intimacy  and proximity, not excluding travelling companions, 
etc.
 
Therefore, it is way too narrow to exclude combinations of  children, women, 
slaves, or whatever (if we are talking about possibilities of  fulfilment).  
Don't assume that I'm arguing from a mistaken idea of  complete symmetry 
between the genders in this culture.
 
Cindy Westfall
Assistant Professor
McMaster Divinity College
 
 



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