[B-Greek] hHMEIS DE hWS ADOKIMOI WMEN, 2 Cor. 13:7

Eric Inman eric.inman at wescorpflex.com
Thu Feb 8 10:43:41 EST 2007


I have two questions.

First of all, could it be possible that the second hINA goes with WMEN
rather than EUCOMEQA, resulting in:

"And we entreat you by God not to do anything wrong, not so we ourselves
would appear to meet the test, for in order that you would do the right
thing we would (be willing to) be as having failed."

Secondly, Carl, would you suggest that DOKIMOS should be taken in sense #2
in verses 5 and 6 as well as in verse 7?

Eric Inman

-----Original Message-----
From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Carl W. Conrad
Sent: Thursday, February 08, 2007 7:45 AM
To: Webb
Cc: 'B-Greek'
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] hHMEIS DE hWS ADOKIMOI WMEN, 2 Cor. 13:7


On Feb 7, 2007, at 8:04 PM, Webb wrote:

> EUCOMEQA DE PROS TON QEON MH POIHSAI hUMAS KAKON MHDEN
> OUC hINA hHMEIS DOKIMOI FANWMEN, ALL hINA hUMEIS TO KALON POIHTE
> hHMEIS DE hWS ADOKIMOI WMEN
>
> I'd like to rule out the possibility that this essentially means,
>
> And we're praying to God that you won't do anything wrong - not so  
> that
> we'll appear to be accepted by you, but so that you'll do the right  
> thing -
> even if that means rejecting us.
>
> NRSV, followed in essence by most English versions, has, "not that  
> we may
> appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right,  
> though we
> may seem to have failed".
> This one is susceptible of the reading I am trying to rule out, but  
> it more
> probably means, "you'll do the right thing despite the appearance  
> that we've
> failed".
>
> Lattimore has, "not so that we may appear worthy, but so that you  
> may do
> what is good and we may be, as it were, the unworthy ones".
> This is interesting, because it sounds like the sort of thing Paul  
> might
> well say. "I don't care if we come out looking like fools, as long  
> as you
> come out ok".
>
> Any comments?

Everybody's jumping to respond to this, huh? I'm the first, after 12  
hours have passed! I suppose that may mean that others are every bit  
as uncomfortable with this passage as are Webb and myself. Well,  
inasmuch as "comments" have been requested, that's what I'll offer.

In the first place, it is my conviction that, important as this  
letter is for so many reasons, its interpretation should remain open  
to revision by any serious interpreter unless and until a whole slew  
of questions have been resolved. That the letter is a composite of  
multiple letters seems to me a given: that raises the question of its  
composition history and also the question of what was said by the  
opposing party to whom these letters are responses. If one doesn't  
think this is a composite letter, then other questions will come up.  
The sum of it all is that one of the major problems of the letter to  
the Galatians (What did the other party say to evoke the response we  
read? What is to be understood between the lines of the present  
communication?) multiplied "to the power of X" (yes, where I live in  
the mountains I must rely on satellite radio because I can't even get  
a cell phone or wireless internet yet).

It seems to me that the crux of the question in this particular text  
is the intended sense of DOKIMOS. I think that BDAG is probably right  
in its listing of the range of possible senses:
	1. pert. to being genuine on the basis of testing, approved (by  
test), tried and true, genuine
	2. pert. to being considered worthy of high regard, respected,
esteemed
	3. pert. to being valuable, precious

I am inclined to think that sense #2 is closer to what's meant in 2  
Cor 13:7 than the others -- that our concern here is with "face" --  
with how one "looks" to others with whom one is dealing.  I also am  
inclined to think that the adjective is close in sense to a usage of  
the verb DOKEW that we see in Gal 2:6-7 APO DE TWN DOKOUNTWN EINAI TI  
-- hOPOIOI POTE HSAN OUDEN MOI DIAFEREI; PROSWPON [hO] QEOS OU  
LAMBANEI -- EMOI GAR hOI DOKOUNTES OUDEN PROSANEQENTO ...

I think there's almost a colloquial force to the adjective DOKIMOS  
and its opposed ADOKIMOS -- not in other NT instances where these  
words appear, but in this particular passage. And it seems to me too  
that the hWS that qualifies ADOKIMOI in the final clause of our  
passage weakens -- a little -- the negative force of the adjective:  
"somewhat faceless" or "somewhat out of favor."

In that light, I suggest (very, very tentatively):

Text: EUCOMEQA DE PROS TON QEON MH POIHSAI hUMAS KAKON MHDEN OUC hINA  
hHMEIS DOKIMOI FANWMEN, ALL hINA hUMEIS TO KALON POIHTE  hHMEIS DE  
hWS ADOKIMOI WMEN

"And I entreat you by god not to do anything wrong, not so I myself  
can save face, but so that YOU yourselves do the right thing and I  
lose face to some extent.

I'm assuming that the hINA clauses here really are all purpose  
clauses, although it seems to me that OUC hINA ... WMEN may be more a  
matter of result (NT Koine Greek has more or less erased any clear  
distinction between purpose and result constructions). I think that  
my version above can be read with that want of distinction between  
purpose and result evident.

End of comment.

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


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