Re: 1 Cor 11:16 TOIAUTHN SUNHQEIAN

From: Paul S. Dixon (dixonps@juno.com)
Date: Sun Sep 13 1998 - 20:58:16 EDT


On Sun, 13 Sep 1998 16:14:25 -0500 "Carl W. Conrad"
<cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu> writes:
>At 7:14 PM -0500 9/9/98, Jonathan Robie wrote:
>>1 Cor 11:16 EI DE TIS DOKEI FILONEIKOS EINAI, hHMEIS TOIAUTHN
>SUNHQEIAN OUK
>>ECOMEN OUDE hAI EKKLHSIAI TOU QEOU ("but if anyone chooses to be
>>contentious, we do not have such a custom, nor do the churches of
>God")
>>
>>In context, I'm not sure what TOIAUTHN SUNHQEIAN refers to. If TOIAUTHN
>>SUNHQEIAN refers to the practice of praying with the head uncovered,
this
>>might mean "if you want to make something of it, let's get this
straight:
>>we just don't do that". That's the interpretation I grew up with.
>>
>>The notes in "The Word in Life Study Bible" suggest another possible
>>interpretation, roughly "but if someone wants to make a fuss about
this,
>>look, neither we nor the churches really have a policy on this". How
>>plausible is this interpretation? Can it really mean this?
>
>I'm not sure I can crack this nut, but nobody else seems to have
>rushed in yet, so why not have a stab at it. I confess right off the bat

>(learned that from Mark McGwire, of course-- ;-) ) that I don't
understand
>what the topic under discussion in this little snippet (1 Cor 11:13-16)
is
>really all about. However, so far as I can figure from the context
>(Paul asked at the outset about what nature teaches about TO PREPON),
it's
>NOT a matter of policy but one of what the author (Paul) thinks is
"natural"
>behavior. He caps it off in verse 16 saying that neither "we" (Paul and
the
>groups he is familiar with) nor "the churches of God" (presumably this
is
>meant to include the former but probably to be more expansive and
>generalizing) "hold with such a convention." Now I don't think SUNHQEIA
>thus qualified by TOIAUTH can mean "policy on this matter"; I think
rather
>that it must mean a conventional practice, and I would assume that this
>refers to a practice of doing as the Corinthians are doing. I really
think
>that a "policy" would be referred to by a different term: something like
>DOGMA in the sense of a formal decision with the force of law.
>
>All the above is nothing but guesswork, and I claim no more for it
>than that.

I'll take a swing. We might want to consider the meaning of TOIAUTHN.
The translations render it rather differently: "no other" (RSV) versus
"no such" (NKJV). I am at a loss. Is there any lexical basis
for taking TOIAUTHN as "no other," implying a different kind of practice,
instead of "no such," meaning none "of such a kind" (BAG)?

This normal meaning of TOIAUTHN is the apparent rationale for taking
TOIAUTHN SUNHQEIAN with the immediately preceding FILONEIKOS.
If anyone thinks or seems to be contentious, we have no such practice
(of being contentious), nor do the churches of God (Calvin and others).

Long drive deep to left. Going, going, gone. Fair or foul?

Paul Dixon

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