[B-Greek] EMFASIS in NT Greek
yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net
yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net
Wed Sep 23 06:54:00 EDT 2009
Iver wrote:
>>
>> "Flattery is shameful. Direct criticism is risky. The best course
>> is the middle road, figured speech."
>> τὸ μὲν οὖν κολακεύειν αἰσχρόν, τὸ
>> δὲ ἐπιτιμᾶν ἐπισφαλές, ἄριστον δὲ
>> τὸ μεταξύ, τοῦτ' ἔστι τὸ
>> ἐσχηματισμένον.
>> TO MEN OUN KOLAKEUEIN AISCRON, TO DE EPITIMAN EPISFALES, ARISTON DE
>> TO METAXU, TOUT ESTI TO EXCHMATISMENON.
>
> I suppose flattery is shameful when it is clearly deceptive and
> everyone knows that the flatterer is lying. However, if the
> addressee is in a high office, he might well believe the smooth
> words, even if the speaker says them in order to make a good
> expression or obtain a favor and may not necessarily agree with
> those words. When I look at Acts 24:2-4 it sounds like flattery to
> me and I doubt that the words would be considered shameful.
Right you are. Indeed, assuming the official is alert to multiple
entendre, the superficial flattery is sufficient to protect the
speaker from adverse reaction (i.e. ASFALEIA). Seneca wrote the De
Clementia to Nero as he did, perhaps for similar reasons. But
Quintilian could also make light of the task of criticizing tyrants.
Seneca's own sarcasm against Claudius and his adulation of Nero in
Apocolocyntosis. Seneca himself, however, encourages Nero's god-like
status as part of a cultural milieu that simply accepts this a face
value. The emperor that lays claim to deity as did Domitian becomes
trapped in delusions, his own lies, but the government official that
promotes the official line that his rapacious and self-serving
extortion on a mass scale is "justice" and "graciousness" is
perpetuating the BIG LIE as a cloak for his greed. Neither one can
take exception to those who give them the honors they demand, even if
they know that they are intended as mockery. The big like demands lip
service. I think I see something more complicated in Paul in, say,
Romans. In chapter 13 he sounds rather positive about Roman rule
(although the apocalyptic background of "darkness" is there). Jewett
argues, rightly I think, that Paul must be careful of offending
Christians in the Roman church who are officials of the imperial
administration. If you compare that with Romans 8:14-25, a passage
that takes imperial imagery (popularized in the images of the Ara
Pacis, for example) and simply turns it on its head, you see that Paul
has used EMFASIS to chart a middle course between flattery and overt
criticism in Romans..
>
> Concerning avoiding direct criticism, I think that is very common in
> many cultures. At least I am used to living in a culture where
> politicians will often use figures of speech to criticize others.
> When confronted later by journalists they will always respond: I
> didn't say that, or I didn't mean it that way. (Meaning: I was
> careful to be indirect so that I could always have a way out). Some
> of the parables/stories in the OT and NT are indirect criticisms.
>
I agree with you, I lived in south America under a military
dictatorship and we observed first hand how that situation warps and
shapes communication.
> This was a challenge for us when translating a particular figure of
> speech Jesus used (in Greek hH GENEA hAUTH). For instance, in Mark
> 8:11 a group of hostile Pharisees came to Jesus to test him by
> demanding to see a sign "from Heaven". Jesus answered them: "Why
> does this generation seek a sign?" The phrase GENEA hAUTH refers to
> the addressees in an indirect and ambiguous way. So, I asked our
> national translators how they would use a similar kind of speech,
> and they responded quickly. "Oh, yes", they said. "We do this all
> the time. A public speaker cannot directly accuse anyone in his
> audience, but if he wants to criticize some of them he will say
> 'some people'. " So we translated this verse as: "Why do some people
> want a sign?" In Danish we said for Mrk 8:12: "Certain people demand
> signs and wonders, before they are ready to believe. But I tell you:
> Such people will get no sign."
>
> A similar figure of speech is to use "I" when criticizing "you".
> Paul does it in Gal 2:18 and Rom 7, and maybe other places. The
> purpose is to avoid offending the addressees.
>
Good one with "I" in Romans 7. I am impressed by this suggestion!
Thanks, Iver!
> Iver Larsen
Yancy Smith
yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net
Y.W.Smith at tcu.edu
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