[B-Greek] SEIRAS as 'braids' in Judges 16:13-19?
Mark Lightman
lightmanmark at yahoo.com
Thu Jun 24 08:18:02 EDT 2010
Daniel egrapse:
<Could the lexicons be amiss here in not giving 'braids' as a specific
meaning of SEIRA...?>
Hi, Daniel,
Winston Churchill said, about beating the Germans, "Give us the tools and we'll
finish the job." By "tools" he meant "military and economic aid from America."
If you look up the word "tool" in even the best English dictionaries, you won't find
this meaning, but everyone knew what Mr. Churchill meant. My dad was seven years old
at the time, and HE knew what it meant.
It's funny you bring this up, because recently somebody on the List--I forgot who, maybe
Barry or James S or somebody-- complained about the opposite phenomenon, namely where
a lexicon lists as definition what is clearly just a metaphoric meaning. My favorite lexicon,
Langensscheidt's Pocket Greek Dictionary glosses the word with "rope, string, chain" and with this,
I doubt anyone would fail to understand the passage from Judges. That should be our standard,
I think.
<...or have I just not looked at enough lexicons?>
I don't know, Daniel. How many lexicons does a man need? Oscar Wilde defined
monogamy as "one marriage too many." I would not go that far; I would not say that
one lexicon is one too many, but I will say this. I see no reason why
WARNING. WARNING. MARKOS ULTRA-NAUSEAM ALERT. THE FOLLOWING THOUGHT
HAS BEEN REHASHED BY MARKOS TO THE POINT WHERE IF YOU CONTINUE READING
YOU MAY WIND UP EXPERIENCING PHYSICAL DISCOMFORT. WARNING WARNING
we should treat these Greek lexicons any differently than we do our English ones.
When was the last time you found fault with your English dictionary? When was the
last time you told your son to look up a word in an English dictionary but you checked
first to make sure it did not give a one word gloss? We almost never put form before
meaning in English. We seem to do it all the time with Greek. I'm trying to figure out
why we do this so much, and whether it is a bad thing.
Anyway, I did enjoy your question. ERRWSO.
Mark L
FWSFOROS MARKOS
________________________________
From: Daniel Buck <bucksburg at yahoo.com>
To: B-Greek <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wed, June 23, 2010 12:45:07 PM
Subject: [B-Greek] SEIRAS as 'braids' in Judges 16:13-19?
The usual meaning of SEIRA is a rope or cord. But in the account of Sampson and Delida, the LXX uses it in v. 13, 14, and 19 to refer to Sampson's hair, "TAS hEPTA SEIRAS THS KEFALHS." I can't imagine Sampson's uncut hair falling naturally into seven discrete strands each time it is mentioned, so it seems that what he did was wear his long hair in seven braids. And a braid does in fact bring to mind the twisted joining of strands into a rope.
Could the lexicons be amiss here in not giving 'braids' as a specific meaning of SEIRA, or have I just not looked at enough lexicons?
Daniel Buck
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