[B-Greek] Gen 25.23 and the LXX, in Rom 9.12

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Wed Sep 15 05:46:45 EDT 2010


On Sep 14, 2010, at 10:55 PM, P R wrote:

> I am looking through the NT to see how reliant it was on the LXX, and I came
> across Rom 9.12 ("The elder shall serve the younger").
> 
> I am looking at this verse as a most probable reference to the LXX, because
> the word Paul used here for "younger," elasswn (think I got my TLG right),
> is used only here in the NT to mean "younger." Elsewhere, it means "fewer"
> or "less." The more common NT word was neos, which was used 4 times to mean
> young, and another 8 times in its comparative form.
> 
> OK. Is this sufficient reason to see Paul as quoting from the LXX here, or
> is there any other reason why elasswn might have been used here, whereby he
> might simply have been translating whatever version of the OT he had, into
> Greek? The Masoretic text has the same reading here.


BDAG, s.v. MEGAS/μέγας 1.d:
	d. of age (Jos., Ant. 12, 207 μικρὸς ἢ μέγας=‘young or old’); to include all concerned μικροὶ καὶ μεγάλοι small and great (PGM 15, 18) Rv 11:18; 13:16; 19:5, 18; 20:12. μικρῷ τε καὶ μεγάλῳ Ac 26:22. ἀπὸ μικροῦ ἕως μεγάλου (Gen 19:11; 4 Km 23:2; 2 Ch 34:30; POxy 1350) 8:10; Hb 8:11 (Jer 38:34). μέγας γενόμενος when he was grown up 11:24 (Ex 2:11). ὁ μείζων the older (O. Wilck II, 144, 3 [128 AD]; 213, 3; 1199, 2; LXX; cp. Polyb. 18, 18, 9 Σκιπίων ὁ μέγας; 32, 12, 1) Ro 9:12; B 13:2 (both Gen 25:23).

I don't think this is anything distinctly Semtiic. Contemporary Latin, of course, uses MAIOR and MINOR for "older" and "younger" -- Polybius in BDAG's citation has simply turned the Latin name "Scipio Major" into its Greek equivalent.  I'm reminded of an elderly friend whose granddaughter was named for her; how should the two be distinguished? "Well," she said, "you can call me "Big Jane" or "Old Jane," but you don't call me "Big Old Jane."

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






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