[B-Greek] hUPOSTASIS Hebrews 3:14

Jeffrey B. Gibson jgibson000 at comcast.net
Fri Jan 11 00:06:41 EST 2008



Michael Abernathy wrote:

> Carl,
> Thank you for response. I suspect that I was reacting to the article in
> TDNT  which states, "Thus ARCH THS hUPOSTASEWS si a description of the
> reality on which the existence of the community rests, as Christ, the
> apostle of the confession, is the presence of the reality of God in
> which believers share." and "It is plain, then, that in Hb. hUPOSTASIS
> always denotes the 'reality' of God which stands contrasted with the
> corruptible, shadowy, and merely prototypical character of the world. . ."
> I thought TDNT probably overstated their case but it seemed equally
> proper to either the reality of the Church or the universe itself.

Fist off, my apologies for the gruffness with which I've spoken to Michael.  Uncalled for.

Secondly, please note that one of the reasons that we see  in TDNT is that the author of the entry, Koester,  is working from
the assumption that was popular until the late 1960s until Barrett, Williamson, Hurst and others threw cold water on it, that
the author of Hebrews was a neo platonist and that his language bore the meaning that it had within that school of thought.

As Ellingworth notes, Köster tends to press all occurrences of hUPOSTASIS  into one mold, determined by etymology and he seems
to ignore the data in cites Polybius. 4.50.10 (cf. 6.55.2) and Josephus Ant. 18.1.6 §24 where hUPOSTASIS is used to signify
“the underlying resolution with which a soldier or a martyr” respectively “confronts a situation.”

Third,  you seem to be ignoring that hUPOSTASIS in 3:14 is articular, and that  existence/reality is hardly the only, let alone
the primary, meaning hUPOSTASIS bore, even in Hebrews (cf LSJ), and that it is primarily  in contexts in which a contrast is
being made with what merely seems to be real that it bears the meaning of actual being/reality (BDAG) -- which is not what we
have in 3:14..

Fourth, how does one  "hold onto", let alone "hold firmly on to"  the "beginning of (the) existence"?

Jeffrey
--
Jeffrey B. Gibson, D.Phil. (Oxon)
1500 W. Pratt Blvd.
Chicago, Illinois
e-mail jgibson000 at comcast.net





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