[B-Greek] Etymological fallacy?

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Nov 19 12:51:03 EST 2008


μαρτυρεῖ δὲ περὶ τούτου καὶ (MARTUREI DE  
PERI TOUTOU KAI) F. J.A. Hort.

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Rick Brannan" <rick at logos.com>
> Date: November 19, 2008 12:37:15 PM EST
> To: "Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu>
> Subject: RE: [B-Greek] Etymological fallacy?
>
> F.J.A. Hort wrote about this over 100 years ago, in the context of  
> usage of ἐκκλησία E)KKLHSI/A in the LXX; his comment also  
> reminds me why this particular false etymology ("called-out ones")  
> is so appealing:
>
> "There is no foundation for the widely spread notion that  
> ἐκκλησία E)KKLHSI/A means a people or a number of individual  
> men called out of the world or mankind. In itself the idea is of  
> course entirely Scriptural, and moreover it is associated with the  
> word and idea ‘called’, ‘calling’, ‘call’. But the  
> compound verb ἐκκαλέω E)KKALE/W is never so used, and  
> ἐκκλησία E)KKLHSI/A never occurs in a context which suggests  
> this supposed sense to have been present in the writer’s  
> mind." (Hort, _The Christian Ecclesia_, p. 5)
>
> ---------------------------------------------------
> Rick Brannan
> Information Architect — Greek databases
> Logos Bible Software
> http://www.logos.com

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Ret)




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