[B-Greek] "Gnostic" and "agnostic"
Nichael Cramer
nichael at sover.net
Tue Apr 12 21:00:04 EDT 2011
A. J. Birch wrote:
>Dear Nichael,
>
>Gnostics think that they know; agnostics know that they don't. (The
>initial 'a' turns knowing into not knowing.)
Yes, I understand all this quite well.
But I'm afraid I don't see what this has to do with my question.
Nichael
>Andrew J. Birch
>Palma de Mallorca, Spain
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Nichael Cramer
>To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
>Sent: Monday, April 11, 2011 10:45 PM
>Subject: [B-Greek] "Gnostic" and "agnostic"?
>
>
>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?
>
>Thanks,
>Nichael
>
>--
>Nichael Cramer
>Guilford VT
>nichael at sover.net
>http://www.sover.net/~nichael/
>
>---
>B-Greek home page: http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek
>B-Greek mailing list
>B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
>http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek
>---
>B-Greek home page: http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek
>B-Greek mailing list
>B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
>http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list