[B-Greek] hAMARTIA

George F Somsel gfsomsel at yahoo.com
Mon Nov 23 16:00:59 EST 2009


To claim that this word lacked historical usage is to err (hAMRTANEIN).  Moulton and Milligan give examples of several non-Christian uses

  
It will be convenient to give (non-Christian) citations for this important word fully. In a private letter of the time of Augustus the writer complains—ἐγὼ μὲν οὐ δοκῶι ἄξιος εἶναι ὑβρίζεσθαι . . . οὐδὲ γὰρ ἡμάρτηκά τι εἰς σέ EGW MEN OU DOWI ACIOS EINAI hUBRIZESQAI . . . OUDE GAR hHMARTHKA TI EIS SE (cf. Ac 25:8, etc.), BGU IV. 114114ff.: cf. l. 8 ἐν τῇ πρώτῃ μου ἐπιστολῇ οὐθὲν ἁμάρτημα ἔνει EN THi PRWTHi MOU EPISTOLHi OUQEN hAMARTHMA ENEI (l.ἔνι ENI = ἔνεστι ENESTI). BGU III. 846 (i/a.d.) (= Selections, p. 93, Documents, p. 259) is an illiterate appeal from Antonius Longus to his mother entreating her to be reconciled to him. He makes his daily prayer to Serapis for her, etc.—λ̣οιπὸν οἶδα τ̣ί̣ [ποτʼ]αἰμαυτῷ παρέσχημαι, παιπαίδ̣δευμαι καθʼ
 ὃν δῖ(l.δεῖ) τρόπον. οἶδα ὅτι ἡμάρτηκα LOIPON OIDA TI [POT'] AIMAUTWi PARESXHMAI PAIPAIDDEUMAI KAQ' hON DI (/. DEI) TROPON. OIDA hOTI hHMARTHKA, “furthermore I know what I have brought upon myself. Punished I have been as I ought. I know that I have sinned”: cf. Lk 15:18, 21. In the interesting rescript of an Emperor to the Jews, P Par 6850ff., we read, καὶ γὰρ τ[οὺς εἰς ἡμᾶς]ἁμαρτάνοντας δε[όντως κολάζεσθαι]εἰκός KAI GAR T[TOUS EIS hHMAS] hAMARTANONTAS DE [ONTWS KOLAZESQAI] EIKOS. In P Oxy I. 34iii. 4(a.d.127) a Roman prefect uses some strong language about infringement of his instructions regarding certain archives: ἄδειαν ἑαυτοῖς ὧν ἁμαρτάνουσι ἔσεσθ[α]ι νομίζοντες ADEIAN hEAUTOIS hWN hAMARTANOUSI ESESQ[A]I NOMIZONTES, “imagining that they will not be punished for their illegal acts” (Edd.).
 
Moulton, J. H., & Milligan, G. (1930). The vocabulary of the Greek Testament. Issued also in eight parts, 1914-1929. (25). London: Hodder and Stoughton.
 
Further, LSJ has numerous enties including the Odyssey, Aeschylus, Euripides, Thucydides, Sophocles, Herodotus, Plato, etc.
 george
gfsomsel 


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learn truth, love truth, speak the truth, hold the truth, 
defend the truth till death.


- Jan Hus
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----- Original Message ----
From: "rhutchin at aol.com" <rhutchin at aol.com>
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Mon, November 23, 2009 1:31:13 PM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] hAMARTIA


I have heard people describe the term as largely being taken over by the religious community and not being used much by other writers in an ordinary or common sense.  The meaning is, supposedly, that of being contrary and not a term that one would necessarily use in polite company. If "missing the mark" is in view as the meaning, it would not describe the person who is trying to do right and doesn't quite make it, but of the person who has no desire to do right and does not even try.  If we use the analogy of the archer aiming for the target, it would have the archer do a 180, aim in the very opposite direction of the target and let fly, and then be quite satisfied and smug with the result. This seems an adequate characterization of sin to me.  Given the lack of historical use, it seems that people can be as clever and imaginative as they want in defining the term.

Roger Hutchinson

____________________________________


Date: Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:33:19 -0600 (CST)
From: drdwilkins at verizon.net
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] hAMARTIA

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 deprav
ed. 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)




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