[B-Greek] hO ARXWN: ruler or prince
Steve Westfall
steve.westfall at comcast.net
Sun Feb 25 01:06:22 EST 2007
One should consider the meaning of the English word "prince" and its
relationship to "ruler" and whether the semantic domains of those two words
coincided more four hundred years ago than they do now.
According to the American Heritage Dictionary (3rd edition), the current
semantic domain of "prince" includes the notions of "the ruler of a
principality" and "a hereditary ruler; a king", as well as the perhaps more
prominent "male member of a royal family other than the monarch". It may be
that in 1611 "prince" was a perfectly acceptable translation of ARCWN. I
notice that the Geneva Bible and the Douay-Rheims versions, both roughly
contemporary with KJV, also employ "prince" in John 12:31.
Whether "prince" is a good translation today is another issue. Personally,
I find it natural to think of the word "prince" in a generic sense as
"ruler" depending on the context in which it is used.
Steve Westfall
-----Original Message-----
From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Weaks, Joe
Sent: Saturday, February 24, 2007 3:35 PM
To: Stephen Baldwin; b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] hO ARXWN: ruler or prince
It is the KJV that rendered ARCWN as "prince". This was picked up by the
likes of NIV. There are some translations still today that seem in my
anecdotal observation to have a method of not deviating from KJV if they
don't have to.
I would think the best translation would be not to maintain this
interpretive tradition, as is evidenced in the RSV and NRSV tradition by
using "ruler".
Louw&Nida, Lidell&Scott don't mention "prince" as within the semantic domain
of ARCWN either.
However, do note for reference that the Hebrew Shar is translated in the LXX
as ARCWN in Is 9.6.
Joe Weaks
PhD (Cand), Brite Divinity School
Minister, Raytown Christian Church
-----Original Message-----
From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org on behalf of Stephen Baldwin
Sent: Sat 2/24/2007 2:01 PM
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [B-Greek] hO ARXWN: ruler or prince
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Another query if I may...
I've been trying to establish why hO ARXWN [TOU KOSMOU] is translated as
Prince in e.g John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11 (a good year ;-)).
There is [imho] a qualitative difference between a ruler and a prince and
I've not yet read anything (Barrett, Morris, Westcott commentaries,
TDNT/Kittel, BAG) that provides a convincing answer [to me] as to why we
would use "prince" rather than "ruler".
Any insights on this would be appreciated.
Rgds
Steve
Stephen Baldwin
stbaldwi at hotmail.com
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