[B-Greek] Re. Paulines vs. Hebrews
Harold Holmyard
hholmyard at ont.com
Mon Sep 4 14:30:26 EDT 2006
Dear Yancy,
>Has anyone taken a look at J. Chrysostom's comments on Hebrews,
>especially his interpretation of it as a LOGOS PARAKLESEWS?
>
>
HH: If you look at the use of the word PARAKLHSIS at Heb 11:25, it
suggests that the phrase LOGOS PARAKLHSEWS might refer to exhortation or
admonition rather than consolation:
Heb. 12:5 And ye have forgotten the EXHORTATION which speaketh unto you
as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord,
nor faint when thou art rebuked of him.
HH: The overall tone of the letter seems to be admonition, exhortation,
and encouragement more than consolation. BAGD puts the usage in Hebrews
(including 6:18) under "encouragement, exhortation."
BAGD compares 2 Macc 15:11:
hEKASTON DE AUTWN KAQOPLISAS, OU THN ASPIDWN KAI LOGCWN ASFALEIAN, hWS
THN EN TOIS AGAQOIS LOGOIS PARAKLHSIN, KAI PROSEXHGHSAMENOS OVEIRON
AXIOPISTON hUPAR TI PANTAS EUFRANEN
2Mac. 15:11 He armed each of them not so much with confidence in shields
and spears as with the inspiration of brave words, and he cheered them
all by relating a dream, a sort of vision, which was worthy of belief.
HH: But since the Greek word PARAKLHSIS can signify admonition,
exhortation, encouragement, or consolation, I suppose we can notice all
such elements in the letter, can't we?
Yours,
Harold Holmyard
>Yancy Smith
>yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net
>5636 Wedgworth Rd.
>Fort Worth, TX 76133
>817-361-7565
>
>
>
>
>On Sep 2, 2006, at 10:43 AM, cwestf5155 at aol.com wrote:
>
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: cwestf5155 at aol.com
>> To: cwconrad2 at mac.com
>> Sent: Sat, 2 Sep 2006 9:42 AM
>> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Re. Paulines vs. Hebrews
>>
>> I'm actually interested in hearing Carl expand his comments.
>>Generally, Hebrews is recognized as having a high quality of
>>literary Greek along with Luke-Acts and is hailed as the first
>>Christian literary masterpiece by Deissmann.
>>
>> What evidence we have from the early church appears to indicate
>>that they (eg. Origin) saw a major difference between Paul's Greek
>>and the Greek of Hebrews based on literary style, which they had to
>>deal with if they wanted to assert that it was Pauline. Clement
>>noted the purity of its Greek, but then said that it was Luke's
>>translation of an epistle that Paul wrote in Hebrew!
>>
>> One thing that sets Hebrews apart is its use of rhetorical
>>techniques--not only a good understanding of rhetoric, but things
>>such as the use of alliteration and rhythm. Check out M.R. Cosby's
>>rhetorical analysis of Heb 11. His thesis suggests that the
>>features that he finds make ch. 11 prominent, but it isn't
>>inconsistent with the rest of the epistle. Most now note the
>>consequent orality of the epistle--it sounds like it was meant to
>>be read out loud.
>>
>> Another thing is the high level of vocabulary. While I am very
>>leery of the claims that an author wouldn't/couldn't use a markedly
>>different vocabulary letters written in different contexts,
>>probably the difference between Hebrews and the Pauline Epistles is
>>something that requires a higher reading level, as most of us know.
>>Scholars have done statistical comparisons of the vocabulary (which
>>I read with a jaundiced eye).
>>
>> The repeated use of "periodic sentences" which involve long
>>complexes similar to Luke 1:1-4 are thought to be part of the high
>>literary style--the hypotaxis that Carl mentions. It's interesting
>>that Carl finds this awkward, which may indicate an artificial (?)
>>attic influence. But then I think that we often find less
>>accessible language (such as what scholars consider appropriate) to
>>be awkward.
>>
>> There is extensive use of the LXX and of Pauline epistles, but the
>>approach (as Carl notes, the most extended argument in the NT), and
>>other things like the way faith is discussed are very different.
>>
>> Its structure is different from the Pauline epistles, and,
>>incidentally, from other contemporary Greek and Latin exhortatory
>>letters. L. Wills and others have suggested that the "word of
>>exhortation" (TOU LOGOU THS PARAKLHSEWS in 13:22) was the form of
>>the Hellenistic sermons in the synagogues. However, there are some
>>similarities with 1 Peter and 1 John.
>>
>> Check out D.A. Penick's 'Paul's Epistles Compared with One Another
>>and with the Epistle to the Hebrews', The American Journal of
>>Philology 42:1 (1921). Obviously dated, but focuses on your interest.
>>
>> My participation is invariably a sign of procrastination and/or
>>stress over something like indexing or in this case, the beginning
>>of the academic year!
>>
>> Cindy Westfall
>> Assistant Professor
>> McMaster Divinity College
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: cwconrad2 at mac.com
>> To: sdchar at gmail.com
>> Cc: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
>> Sent: Sat, 2 Sep 2006 5:08 AM
>> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Re. Paulines vs. Hebrews
>>
>>
>>On Saturday, September 02, 2006, at 00:58AM, Scott Charlesworth
>><sdchar at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>>How would listers describe the differences between Pauline Greek
>>>(say Galatians
>>>
>>>
>>and Colossians) and that used by the author of Hebrews? Does the
>>latter by
>>virtue of its subject matter draw more on Septuagintal terminology?
>>Of course
>>both authors were using the Greek of their day and their vocabulary
>>should be
>>found in contemporaeous papyrus documents. But might Hebrews be
>>expected to draw
>>more heavily from the LXX pool than the Paulines ?
>>
>>This is a rather superficial response, but off the "top of my head"
>>what comes
>>to mind is (a) a marked rhetorical bent in argumentation that goes
>>far beyond
>>what the unquestioned Pauline letters display (esp., say, in 1
>>Corinthians and
>>Romans); (b) a sort of elaborate Platonic distinction between
>>heavenly realities
>>and earthly "shadows"; (c) what seems to me at times a rather
>>awkward hypotactic
>>concatenation of clauses which are harder to follow.
>>
>>I would expect Cindy West, who made Hebrews her doctoral focus, can
>>give a more
>>meaningful response to your question, and as she has been active on
>>this list
>>lately, I expect that she will.
>>
>>Carl W. Conrad
>>Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
>>1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
>>cwconrad2 at mac.com
>>WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
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