[B-Greek] Lightman discusses his two favorite topics
Sarah Madden
sarah.r.madden at gmail.com
Sat May 22 19:09:32 EDT 2010
My vote is for Φωφορος (FWSFOROS MARKOS), the same way you already have it,
because it reminds me of phosphorus, which can emit light.
Here's something from Wikipedia that could explain your reference to Lucifer
...
"The first form of phosphorus to be discovered (white phosphorus, in 1669)
emits a faint glow upon exposure to
oxygen<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen>— hence its name given from
Greek mythology,
Φωσφόρος meaning "light-bearer" (Latin
*Lucifer<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucifer>
*), referring to the "Morning Star <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesperus>",
the planet Venus <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus>."
Sarah
On Sat, May 22, 2010 at 12:09 PM, Mark Lightman <lightmanmark at yahoo.com>wrote:
> My two favorite topics are
>
> 1. Ancient
> Greek
>
> 2. Mark Lightman
>
> If you translate my surname into Greek, one way
> to do it is Φωσφορος (FWSFOROS)
> which means something like a
> "bringer of light." I'm not sure what a "lightman" is, but
> this is
> probably the sense of the word, someone who goes around and lights the
> lamps
> in the Shtetl, or maybe someone who was in charge of the
> lighting in the Yiddish theater.
> ("To be or not to be, oy, what a
> question!")
>
> There is this other guy over on B-Latin named Marcus
> Lucifer, but that is another story.
>
> Anyway, to get back to the
> "topic," since learning Homer, I now realize that there may be
> a
> better way of rendering "Lightman" into Ancient Greek, namely Φωσφως
> (FWSFWS.)
> You see, there are actually two words, φως with a circumflex and φως with
> an acute.
> The first is probably from FAINW and means "the thing that shines, light"
> while the
> second is probably from FUW and means "the thing which is
> born," i.e. "a man."
> Φως is in fact very common in Homer for "man"
> Homer also uses φως for light,
> except that he always uses the
> uncontracted form φαος (FAOS.) The contracted
> form for "light," φως
> with the circumflex, occurs 73 times in the Greek NT, but φως with the
> acute,
> "man," never occurs in Early Christian literature; you won't find it, for
> example, in BDAG.
>
> But is it possible that John is punning on
> these two words in John 1:6ff?
> εγενετο ανθρωπος... 8 ουκ ην εκεινος
> το φως, αλλ ινα μαρτυρησῃ περι του φωτος.
> (EGENETO ANQRWPOS...OUK
> HN EKEINOS TO FWS ALL' hINA MARTURHSHi
> PERI TOU FWTOS.) "There was a man...This guy was not the Light, but he
> came
> in order to testify about the Light.
>
> Get it? John was a man (φως) who testified about Jesus, who was a light
> (φως)
> AND a man (φως.) Jesus is a light/man? Yes. That is the
> essence of the Christian
> gospel, that the very Light of the World became one of us so
> that we might be saved
> from eternal darkness. Ιησους φωσφως εστιν.
> (IHSOUS FWSFWS ESTIN.
>
> The problem with my theory, besides its
> obvious narcissism, is that we don't know enough
> about the writer and original readers of John to know whether they would
> have gotten
> the
> pun. Was the word φως (man) still understood among whoever wrote and
> read
> this Gospel? Did these folks read any Homer? How the heck
> would I know?
> How the heck would anyone know? This, in essence, is
> the problem, not with
> a little Greek, but with a lot of Greek. The
> more Greek you know, the more likely
> you are to read things into the text which may or
> may not be there.
>
> But, getting back to the topic, what do you
> guys think of Φωσφως Μαρκος?( FWSFWS MARKOS)
> Does this
> anachronistically mix dialectical epochs, and even if it does, should
> I still use it. Or should I choose? Φαοσφως would be good Homeric Greek
> and
> Φωσανθρωπος would be good Koine, but neither sounds any good.
>
> Any thoughts
> on this topic will be appreciated.
> .
>
>
> Mark L
> Φωφορος
>
> FWSFOROS MARKOS
>
>
>
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--
Sarah ><>
sarah.r.madden at gmail.com
work: 301.429.8189
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