[B-Greek] ERGON and ERGAZOMAI - probably offlist replies would be better

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sun Jan 28 06:06:02 EST 2007


On Jan 27, 2007, at 10:54 PM, Mitch Larramore wrote:

> Comparing
> John's Gospel, 6.29
> APEKRIQH IHSOUS KAI EIPEN AUTOIS, TOUTO ESTIN TO ERGON
> TOU QEOU, hINA PISTEUHTE EIS hON APESTEILEN EKEINOS
> with
> Romans 4.5
> TWi DE MH ERGAZOMENWi, PISTEUONTI DE EPI TON
> DIKAIOUNTA TON ASEBH,

I think Romans 4.5 needs to be seen in conjunction with its  
corresponding preceding clause, 4.4 TWi DE ERGAZOMENWi hO MISQOS OU  
LOGIZETAI KATA CARIN ALLA KATA OFEILHMA -- in both instances the  
participial verb must mean something like "working for gain" or  
"working for one's wages."

> It seems that PISTEUW can be both a ERGON and not
> ERGAZOMENWi.
>
> Not to discuss contradictions, but does the lexical
> range of meanings of the ERG- word group help explain
> how these two verses mesh, if they do? I'm not
> interested in hermeneutical issues, just lexical ones.

I don't really see the problem here -- or just what is thought to be  
a problem. If one will read carefully through the entries in BDAG for  
ERGON, ERGAZOMAI (and other cognates: ERGASIA, ERGATHS, one finds a  
considerable range of extended senses but nothing that is really  
surprising -- and most of it is what one will find in an unabridged  
English dictionary under the word derivative from the same IE root  
('work' = proto-Greek wERGON) .


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/





More information about the B-Greek mailing list