[B-Greek] 1 Pet 2:17: Knowing when a noun is gender-inclusive

Kenneth Litwak javajedi2 at yahoo.com
Sat Apr 19 20:39:05 EDT 2008


 
> Message: 2
> Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2008 05:47:45 -0400
> From: Carl Conrad <cwconrad2 at mac.com>
> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] 1 Pet 2:17:  Knowing when a
> noun is
> 	Gender-inclusive
> To: B-Greek B-Greek <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
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> 
> 
> On Apr 19, 2008, at 12:18 AM, Kenneth Litwak wrote:
> 
> >
> >> In short as far as Greek is concerned such terms
> are
> >> inclusive - the
> >> question is context, since both men and women are
> >> the receivers of the
> >> letter it suggests the brotherhood includes both
> mem
> >> and women. Those
> >> who would use brotherhood just to mean men would
> not
> >> according to
> >> rabbinacal tradition "waste their time" by
> talking
> >> to addressing women.
> >>
> >> From memory the book of Aboth starts with "Rabbi
> so
> >> and so told Rabbi
> >> so and so ... not to waste time talking with
> women"
> >> The commentator
> >> the adds "If that was what was said about talking
> to
> >> ones wife, then
> >> talking to women in gemeral is even more of a
> waste
> >> of time.
> >>
> >> Regards
> >> John Knightley
> >
> > John,
> >
> >  While there are instructions to wives in six
> verses
> > (3:1-6), that does not seem like sufficient data
> to
> > show that Peter was addressing both men and women
> > throughout and it does not really tell us what a
> > first-century reader/hearer would think when he OR
> she
> > encountered "brothers," e.g., James 1:2, or
> > "brotherhood," 1 Pet 2:17.  We need something more
> to
> > know what people would have thought sucha 
> masculine
> > noun could have meant, I would think.
> 
> 
> The abstract noun is formed from the adjective
> ADELFOS/H/ON. Why is it  
> to be supposed that it is "such a masculine noun"?
> 
> 
> Carl W. Conrad
> Department of Classics, Washington University
> (Retired)
> 
Given that the word is formed from a word with a
masculine ending that has a masculine referent,
"brother," perhaps the word "such" in my response is a
bit hyperbolic but the fact remains that I am looking
for a way to know if the author would have also had
ADELFAI/KASIGNHTAI in mind.  That is the whole point
of my post.  Is there any way to know what a
first-century author thought these sorts of words
meant, given that they did not sem ot feel the need to
be geneder-inclusive he way we do?  Let me be very
clear.  I would like to have data to support the view
that the word for brotherhood was regularly used in
Greek by multiple authors with an obvious multi-gender
referent.  I'd like to read it that way.  I am,
however, trying to ascertain what the text is really
saying, rather than what I might want it to say, if
those are different.  Thanks.

Ken Litwak 


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