Re: Suggestions for translating GEENNA

From: David L. Moore (dvdmoore@ix.netcom.com)
Date: Tue Dec 30 1997 - 11:36:26 EST


At 07:56 AM 12/30/97 +0800, Steven Cox wrote:
> Hi
> The Russian Synodal Version just leaves it
> as Geenna (Gehenna) or Ad (Hades). But even
> the Synodal balks at 2 Peter 2:4 being
> Tartarus... might just be a little too
> confusing to have 3 hells :-)

        I wonder if the use of the verb TARTAROW in 2P. 2:4 doesn't have
something to do with punishment in reference to the special rank of angels
here. In the Greek spiritual cosmology, Tartarus was a place of prison and
torment for gods and demi-gods who had offended the more powerful of the
gods. It was not a place for the departed souls of mere men (cf. hADHS).
So TARTAROW is used here, and not in reference to the place of torment for
men who have offended God.

        Peter's (or his interpreter's) use of the verb is apparently in
reference to the *action* rather than the *place* of Tartarus; since the
angels (mighty in their own right) who sinned have been imprisoned in
darkness by the Almighty in an action similar to that of the mythical gods
in consigning those who offended them to Tartarus. Peter gives the
expression a specifically Christian twist in saying that these angels' are
kept for (the day of) judgement.

Regards,

David L. Moore
Miami, Florida, USA
Southeastern Spanish District of the A/G Dept. of Education
E-mail: dvdmoore@ix.netcom.com
Home Page: http://members.aol.com/dvdmoore

            



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