[B-Greek] hAMARTIA
drdwilkins at verizon.net
drdwilkins at verizon.net
Sun Nov 22 19:33:19 EST 2009
I too have given in to the temptation to jump in on this. I agree with Carl that etymology is more fun than useful. You're more likely to hit the mark when the verb meaning is concrete, like one of simple motion. What really hit me years ago was that hAMARTANEIN seems to have survived with (at least) two separate meanings, the concrete "missing the target" and the abstract "making a mistake." You see the same pattern with the Hebrew verb Chata in the OT. That may have influenced NT usage, but even if it did not, Aristotle clearly distinguished major and minor mistakes (or sins) in his Ethics books using AMARTANEIN, and it wasn't about "missing the target" in either case. I'm also on the road at the moment so I'm operating on memory. But I especially liked two of his examples: if a hunter kills a man while thinking that he was aiming at a deer, it's a mistake, and the hunter is not depraved. But if the hunter intentionally kills a man, it's a "major" mistake, and he is depraved. In both cases, though, he hits his target. I know that many like the "missing the mark" analogy because it sounds like one of those gold nuggets from Greek, but in this case as in many others, it's probably fools' gold. Besides, Aristotle's explanation probably makes better preaching. "Missing the mark" never sounded all that bad to me, like being less than perfect. Sin should sound like sin.
Don Wilkins
Nov 22, 2009 04:48:44 AM, cwconrad2 at mac.com wrote:
===========================================
On Nov 21, 2009, at 9:39 PM, Gene Baker wrote:
> I don't usually jump in, but can't resist making the observation that since
> hHMARTON is aorist and hUSTEROUNTAI is present, it would not be superfluous
> to understand hHMARTON in the usual sense of "missing the mark." The first
> word indicating the previous transgression, and the second the present
> reality.
>
> As another point, having more to do with archery than Greek, is that one
> may miss the mark by overshooting it, or by going wide of the mark. In
> either case, a correction of aim point will enable one to hit the target.
> But if one keeps falling short, then the target is out of range for the
> present equipment. Perhaps Paul is hinting at both possibilities.
>
> Or, to raise a different issue, is this one of those cases "handy Adonis?"
As for hHMARTON, I think that it's practically if not actually a Gnomic aorist: "they've all sinned -- they always do."
This is one of those verbs regarding which people like to resort to etymology, even when etymology doesn't really supply useful information regarding present usage if it supplies any useful information at all. It's been quite a few years since I checked out possible etymologies for hAMART-, and I'm not sure how good my memory is (I'm on the road at the moment, and don't have any reference works at hand), but my recollection, for what it's worth, is that the roots here are alpha-privative and *SMAR (whence MEROS, "part") and that the sense was thought to be not getting a share (of something); it is construed with a genitive which may be a partitive genitive. At any rate, as already noted, etymology is a fun game to play, but it really isn't very often useful in dealing with a usage centuries after the coinage of a word.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "George F Somsel" <gfsomsel at yahoo.com>
> To: "Federico Atristain" <federico.atristain at yahoo.com>; "Ibiblio Questions"
> <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
> Sent: Saturday, November 21, 2009 4:58 PM
> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] hAMARTIA
>
>
>> Rom 3.23
>> πάντες γὰρ ἥμαρτον καὶ ὑστεροῦνται τῆς δόξης τοῦ θεοῦ
>> PANTES GAR hHMARTON KAI hUSTEROUNTAI THS DOCHS TOU QEOU
>>
>> If hHMARTON had conveyed the idea of "miss the mark", it would have been
>> superfluous to use hUSTEROUNTAI. In this passage it simply means "to err."
>>
>> george
>> gfsomsel
>>
>>
>> … search for truth, hear truth,
>> learn truth, love truth, speak the truth, hold the truth,
>> defend the truth till death.
>>
>>
>> - Jan Hus
>> _________
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----
>> From: Federico Atristain <federico.atristain at yahoo.com>
>> To: Ibiblio Questions <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
>> Sent: Sat, November 21, 2009 12:42:23 PM
>> Subject: [B-Greek] hAMARTIA
>>
>> I know that certainly it goes along with Rom 3:23 (sinned = hamartano)
>> (fall short = hustereo) where it wants to be noted that God's desire was
>> to give, share and show His glory with men, but by sin (hamartema), men
>> has missed the mark (hustereo).
>>
>> PS: An apology to the greek scholars for my "very poor" greek
>> spellings....
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Federico Atristain
---
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