[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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