[B-Greek] 2Cor 4:3-4 (was 2Cor 3:15-16 hHNIKA ... AN)

Yancy Smith yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net
Tue Feb 9 18:20:08 EST 2010


There is always a danger trying to figure out the logic of conditionals across cultures because (1) mismatches between form and meaning (semantic mismatch) and form and illocutionary force (pragmatic mismatch) and (2) different conditional linking devices are (like hHNIKA AN) polysemous. The logical relationships, nature of truth condition, and pragmatics of conditionals is a much debated area in linguistics, psychology and communication fields. But the larger issue is one of missing cultural information, which we are all too happy to fill in with what seems logical to us in our cultural milieu.

Brian said:

I have stated that I am not saying that the veil is removed when the word of God is not read/spoken, but that it is not really active in the way that Paul is speaking about it here apart from experience of the word

. . .

[Yancy Smith] In fact, Paul says, κάλυμμα ἐπὶ τὴν καρδίαν αὐτῶν κεῖται
KALUMMA EPI THN KARDIAN AUTWN KEITAI

What is the use of the present tense here? How does the KALUMMA become more or less active in KEITAI-ing? This statement of Brian's is mystifying. But I suspect here a problem of mismatching assumptions between Paul's writing and Brian's (or my) reading.

Brian said: hHNIKA AN + subjunctive in 2 Cor 3:15 
highlights this conditional aspect of the veil, that its effects (at least 
those that Paul is specifying here in this context) come into play upon 
reading/hearing the word of God, whether that be Moses of the gospel of 
Christ. If at any time they hear Moses read, then a veil lies over their 
hearts hindering their understanding of the word.

[Yancy Smith] Here I think the problem is one of mismatch of form and logical meaning. The form of the conditional statement is straightforward enough (apart from the temporal/conditional polysemy of hHINIKA) but the content is metaphorical. It cannot represent a real state of affairs if it has to do with veils and reading and hearts all the rest. And here, I think, is where the breakdown in meaning occurs, especially if we think of paintings and what not. In reality, there is no veil. Only Moses had a veil. For the Jews, from Paul's perspective, there is a failure to understand something. The "heart" KARDIA represents an activity of human minds, viz, understanding. What is Paul saying, in his highly rhetorical and metaphorical and Scriptural-Midrashic modes?

He is saying that the Jewish who don't accept Messiah do not understand something important about their founding, cultural icon: the Law of Moses. That misunderstanding persists always since they live, breath, eat, sleep the Law of Moses, "when they rise up, when they lay down and when the are walking on the way." What they don't understand about it, according to Paul was that it was temporary and that its time for dividing between Jews and non-Jew has come and gone (3:11, 13), i.e, it is "TO KATARGOUMENON." And Messiah has come with a whole new set of rules.





Yancy Smith
Yancy W. Smith, PhD
World Bible Translation Center
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Be kinder than necessary for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.








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