[B-Greek] "Gnostic" and "agnostic"?
Carl Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Mon Apr 11 17:03:38 EDT 2011
On Apr 11, 2011, at 4:45 PM, Nichael Cramer wrote:
> All
>
> [I realize that this is not, strictly speaking, a NTGreek question.
> But given the collection of folks here, I thought that this might
> be a reasonable place to ask my question. But, feel free to ignore
> if you think this is too far Off-topic.]
>
> The other day I heard a lecture concerning the opening chapters of Genesis.
> At one point the lecturer mentioned various interpretations that these
> chapters had been given over history. In this context the lecturer mentioned
> "...a group from the first and second century C.E. called the "Gnostics".
>
> All well and good. But at this point, however, the lecturer added as an aside:
> "This is where we get the term 'agnostic'."
>
> So, my question is: Is there any reason to assume any connection
> in the terms "Gnostic" and "agnostic", i.e. in their standard,
> accepted meanings in English?
>
> To make the obvious point, I'm certainly aware of the shared "root" etymology
> of the two terms (i.e. GNOSIS) --but that's pretty much beside the point.
> (Also I've done some quick OED searching and don't find any reason
> to connect these terms.)
>
> Anyway, this statement caused a bit of a "bump" in my ear
> while listening to what was an otherwise obviously knowledgeable
> and informative lecture.
>
> Am I missing something?
I don't think so. It would appear to me that this is a case of adding 2
and 2 and getting 5. There's no doubting the proper derivation from Greek
roots and formative elements: alpha privative, adjectival stem GNWST-,
adjectival infix -IK/ -- but my dictionary doesn't indicate usage of the
English word "agnostic" before 1830. I would look to evidence cited
by the OED -- but you don't see any connection indicated there.
Etymological guessing-games are pretty risky, it would seem.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
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