[B-Greek] Failure to communicate (was "Ambiguity")
Carl Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Fri Feb 5 15:06:32 EST 2010
It would appear that I have unintentionally illustrated precisely what I really
intended to say in my original comment on Mark Lightman's note. The
ambiguity Don Wilkins has been lecturing on and the apparently deliberate
wordplay of ANWQEN in John 3:3 to which George Somsel calls attention
are at best tangential to the point I was trying to make: that speakers and
writers as often as not fail to communicate what they intend to say because
they express themselves carelessly or at least without taking sufficient pains
to avoid being misunderstood. I think that this has happened not that
infrequently in the NT texts where the syntax has been at least somewhat
muddled. This is not just a matter of a middle-passive verb form that can
be interpreted in either of two ways nor a matter of an adnominal genitive
that can be understood either as "subjective" or "objective" or -- if you go
that route -- "plenary." Rather it's the sort of thing that I've often called
attention to in Ephesians 1:3-14 with its undiagrammable run-on sequence
of clauses strung together loosely like pearls on a string in what Homeric
scholars used to call λέξις εἰρομένη [LEXIS EIROMENH], "strung
style" or "run-on-sentence style." It's the kind of text that gives rise to
monumental commentaries by scholars who are at odds with each other
over the meaning of critical passages of potentially profound import,
the kind of text that makes the poor layperson (which is what we all,
whether we admit it or not, really are) scratch his or her head and say,
"That's all very fine, but what does it really mean?"
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
On Feb 5, 2010, at 8:37 AM, Carl Conrad wrote:
> On Feb 5, 2010, at 8:14 AM, Mark Lightman wrote:
>> For what it is worth, Todays Greek Version renders the first
>> hHNIKA with οποτε hOPOTE and the second hHNIKA with
>> οταν hOTAN. The ABE Modern Greek gives οσακις hOSAKIS
>> for the first, and for the second it gives
>> μολις (which in Modern Greek means something like
>> "as soon as") All temporal expressions, though
>> maybe as Carl said, "temporal/generalizing."
>>
>> The Modern Greek has no more authority than any other
>> translation, but I mention it only to remind everyone that
>> Ancient Greek is a more ambiguous language than even
>> Modern Greek.
>>
>> I think Donald is correct that while one CAN go
>> see the conditional and or causal force of the
>> hHNIKA's here, one should not.
>
> I think Mark's statement about the ambiguity of ancient Greek is
> right on target. I do believe that there are quite a few texts, the
> meaning of the Greek text which is essentially unmistakable. I
> think, however, that there are several that are open to alternative
> interpretations whereof one or more is/are more probable than
> othres -- and I rather think that there are more passages than we readily
> admit that do not provide clear grounds for determining which
> sense is preferable (my apologies to any who find my opinion
> offensive). I think too that we often ask questions about
> what's in an author's mind that go beyond anything that s/he has
> clearly stated. This is not, of course, just a matter of ancient Greek;
> it's true, I believe, of all communication: making oneself clear is
> an enterprise that we sometimes succeed at and sometimes don't.
> It does demand an effort -- if we really care to be understood.
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