[B-Greek] THIASARCH used once only

Hugh Donohoe Jr. justusjcmylord at yahoo.com
Thu Dec 27 11:24:32 EST 2007


The danger is in etymologizing indiscriminately based
on the parts of a whole. If I remember correctly
Carson in his book Exegetical Fallacies uses the
example of the English word 'butterfly'. If you were a
non-English speaker and tried to discern what that
word meant based on the various parts of the whole.
Well, the results would be comical. But with words
like EPIOUSIOS, a word only found in the Lord's
prayer. A word not extant in any literature outside
the NT (except the Fathers in quoting the Lord's
Prayer). Scholars have only had recourse to engage in
the sort of etymologizing mentioned above. The
practice does yield fruit, however it must be
exercised judiciously.

Hugh J. Donohoe Jr.

Daniel wrote:
I have a question that springs from something Dr.
Conrad said below:

But it doesn't matter; the meaning of QIASARCHS is
perfectly
clear from its elements. In this instance there's
little to guess at in
the meaning of the elements QIASOS and ARCH of which
the word
is compounded.

Frequently on the list we read that the etymology of
compound words does not
necessarily give the true meaning of the compound. Yet
here, it's "perfectly
clear from its elements".

Other than by just knowing the meanings of compounds,
is there a way to tell
which parts make up the whole and which don't?

Thanks

Daniel Goepfrich



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