[b-greek] Re: XAIREIN

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Fri Sep 22 2000 - 10:09:43 EDT


At 10:02 AM -0400 9/22/00, Bart Ehrman wrote:
> Ignatius begins most of his letters with a greeting formula PLEISTA
>XAIREIN. I'm wondering what the best modern equivalent is. (e.g., just
>to give a fuller sense, to Polycarp: IGNATIOS, hO KAI QEOPOROS, POLUKARPWi
>EPISKOPWi EKKLHSIAS SMURNAIWN MALLON EPISKOPHMENWi hUPO QEOU PATROS KAI
>KURIOU IHSOU XRISTOU, PLEISTA XAIREIN) (consider yourself lucky that I'm
>sparing you the greeting to the Ephesians!).
>
> It's often translated something like (Lake's) "abundant greeting" or
>(Mike Holmes's): "heartiest greetings." Maybe that's the best way to go.
>What about, though, something a bit different, like "all good wishes"?
>(So, for the above: "Ignatius, who is also called God-bearer, to Polycarp,
>bishop of the church of the Smyrnaeans -- rather, the one who has God the
>Father and the Lord Jesus Christ as his bishop-- all good wishes.")

Perhaps "heartiest greetings" is best of the alternatives you've given. I
think that when the explicit part of the salutation is PLEISTA CAIREIN, the
unspoken part of the formula is KELEUEI SE/hUMAS (author/sender's name),
the third-person formula being used as if this phrase is really outside the
letter itself; one could simply rephrase that into the first-person
formula, "I wish you greatest happiness" or "I wish you joy in the fullest."

--

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu

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