[B-Greek] Ambiguity

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Sun Feb 7 05:25:32 EST 2010


On Feb 7, 2010, at 3:58 AM, Vasile STANCU wrote:
> Excuse me, but what does Luke mean when he says (Lk 1:3), using the word ἄνωθεν ANWQEN, 
> 
> ἔδοξε κἀμοὶ παρηκολουθηκότι ἄνωθεν πᾶσιν ἀκριβῶς καθεξῆς σοι γράψαι, κράτιστε 
> Θεόφιλε, 
> 
> EDOCE KAMOI PARHKOLOUQHKOTI ANWQEN AKRIBWS KAQEXHS SOI GAYAI, KRATISTE QEOFILE 
> 
> What is the meaning of this word in this context, as associated with γράψαι 
> GRAYAI? And why does it seem to be so difficult to apply it the same way when 
> associated with γεννηθῆναι GENNHQHNAI? 

In Lk 1:4 ANWQEN has the other sense of "da capo": "from the beginning."

Here the compositional elements do play some role:

-QEN is an ablatival sense: "from" or "away from"
-ANW- is a compositional form of the adverb/preposition meaning "above/over"
 or "back/behind" -- especially in antithesis to KATW as a compositional form of 
the adverb/preposition meaning "down/forward" (think "cataphoric" and "anaphoric"
 as backward-referring" and "forward-referring" respectively.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)






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