[B-Greek] Heb 8:13
Carl Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Fri Oct 2 14:03:38 EDT 2009
On Oct 2, 2009, at 1:44 PM, Cornell Machiavelli wrote:
>
>
> ἐν τῷ λέγειν Καινὴν
> πεπαλαίωκεν τὴν πρώτην: τὸ δὲ
> παλαιούμενον καὶ γηράσκον ἐγγὺς
> ἀφανισμοῦ.
>
> EN TWi LEGEIN KAINHN PEPALAIWKEN THN PRWTHN: TO DE PALAIOUMENON KAI
> GHRASKON
> EGGUS AFANISMOU
>
> The first πεπαλαίωκεν is Perfect tense: the first covenant
> is in a state of
> being obsolete. It continues with παλαιούμενον καὶ
> γηράσκον Present participles: the
> first covenant is then said to becoming obsolete and growing old..
> It has moved from a state
> of being obsolete to a process (or, something in progress) of
> becoming obsolete. Why the move from Perfect
> to Present with PALAIOW?
I think that PALAIOS and KAINOS are relative terms with regard to
longevity of "things" as opposed to GHRAIOS and NEOS are relative
terms with regard to living things or persons (no doubt they may be
used interchangeably, but there is that distinction between their
common usages). I don't think PALAIOS means "obsolete" so much as it
means "old in relationship to something that is new." At any rate, I
don't think that PALAIOUSQAI and GERASKEIN in and of themselves imply
obsolescence. On the other hand, the author of this unnamed snippet
certainly does imply that a thing that has been around a long time and
is getting older is as good as "shuffled off this mortal coil."
But there is no absolute requirement that TO PALAION should
necessarily cease to PALAIOUSQAI. We've been discussing Thayer's
Lexicon today; there's something that's PALAION that doesn't appear to
be EGGUS AFANISMOU, although some would think it should be. Quite a
few of us think that A. T. Robertson's big grammar wears its years
pretty well.
I recall vividly my High School Geometry prof enunciating the
aphorism: "There are new books and there are good books; the good
books are not new and the new books are not good." I think he sort of
felt that Euclid was still good. And I suppose that we could just
about define the sense of a "classic" as a work of literature that is
PALAION but not EGGUS AFANISMOU, something that wears its years well.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
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