Concepts and Words

From: Edgar Foster (questioning1@yahoo.com)
Date: Sat Jun 27 1998 - 11:57:48 EDT


---dalmatia@eburg.com wrote:

>Thanks David.

>26:39 does indeed have Jesus prostrate in supplication to hO QEOS,
asking for something for himself. An inferior asking His Superior. He
is not, apparently, PROSKUNEWing hO QEOS in this action, and if I
understand this right, he never does. Men do PROSKUNEW Him, and hO
QEOS, but not He hO QEOS. I have no idea where all this leads, but it
sure has my attention for the meaning of this term.<

> It just feels outrageous to me that Jesus does not once, in the
entire GNT, worship His Father. I just don't get it. Jesus Christ
does not worship God??? Why??? What relationship between them would
preclude
worship?<

Dear George,

I feel that the research conducted in linguistics concerning discourse
structure would help out immensely here. The Scholastics commonly
taught VOX SIGNIFICAT [REM] MEDIANTIBU CONCEPTIBUS ="The word
signifies [the thing] by means of mediating concepts."

The problem I see with this model, however, is that it limits a word's
signifying properties via mediating concepts, to only one "thing." In
the case of "worship" or "homage," it seems that the action of worship
or homage is not limited to "the word" (PROSKUNEW). I.e., many words
can be used to communicate one concept.

One example that has been given (by Parunak) is a cow grazing in the
field. When I see a cow ruminating, various morphemes and graphemes
may come to mind and be used to delineate what is taking place. While
the NT may not say that Jesus bowed before hO QEOS, if he prays to
Him; says only YHWH is to worshiped; and proclaims His committment to
the Father's will--the concept of worship going to the Father from the
Son seems present.

Another example pertinent to our discussion is Rev. 5:14.

KAI TA TESSARA ZWA ELEGON AMHN KAI hOI EIKOSITESARES PRESBUTEROI
EPESAN KAI PROSEKUNHSAN

The question is, are EPESAN and PROSEKUNHSAN synonymous in this
context? Maybe. If so, it demonstrates once again that it is quite
likely that the signification of a thing is not limited to "the word,"
but many words.

Regards,

Edgar Foster

Classics Major

Lenoir-Rhyne College

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