[B-Greek] Ambiguity

Vasile STANCU stancu at mail.dnttm.ro
Sun Feb 7 06:01:42 EST 2010


Indeed, it is the same way that I perceived the sense of that word in Luke. But to me, phrases like 'from the beginning' and 'again' may be quite equivalent. In Romanian language, we use phrases that may be translated into English as 'make it from the beginning', 'make it again' or 'remake it' quite equivalently. Of course, I do not appeal to my native language as a standard by which Greek should be judged, but I am asking why we cannot accept that the meaning of ἄνωθεν ANWQEN in Luke may apply the same way in Nikodemos' reply, since the logic of the conversation points in that sense?

Vasile


-----Original Message-----
From: Carl Conrad [mailto:cwconrad2 at mac.com] 
Sent: Sunday, February 07, 2010 12:26 PM
To: Vasile STANCU
Cc: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Ambiguity

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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