[b-greek] ude 7

From: Wayne Leman (wleman@mcn.net)
Date: Tue Mar 27 2001 - 11:59:16 EST



----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim West" <jwest@Highland.Net>


> At 09:06 AM 3/27/01 -0700, you wrote:
>
> >That sounds like a statement of fact, Jim, whereas I would think it would
be
> >more accurate to phrase it as a statement of scholarly conclusion
(perhaps,
> >even, hypothesis). It seems to me a more scientific approach to the
lexical
> >semantics of EKPORNEUSASAI would be to look for all occurrences of the
word
> >and its morphological alternates in biblical as well as extra-biblical
> >contexts and attempt to induce from all those occurrences what the
meaning
> >of the word was. I am *not* suggesting a meaning for the word, only
> >addressing the issue of scientific methodology here.
>
> well it is a statement of fact that the sin of sodom was inhospitality.

When did this sin take place? Before Genesis 19? If so, where is this sin
described?

Who was inhospitable, Lot (the righteous one who was saved from destruction)
for not welcoming the men who wanted to enter his house? The towns people
for not welcoming the guests to their homes?

> thats why i make it as a statement. it is also a fact that the rest of
the

> verse describes the sexual immorality of sodom and gomorrah. hence, in
the
> mind of jude, the two are NOT the same or he is being totally redundant.
> now, that accusation can hardly be made of jude, who is so fond of economy
> of words that he scarcely (never) repeats himself in the text at all.
> hence, the common understanding of ekporneuw is inadequate at best and
> misleading at worst.

I think that your logic here is reasonable, Jim, but it doesn't preclude
some redundancy on Jude's part. Redundancy is a normal part of human
language, even in the language of a writer like Jude who wrote economically.

The scientific tension here, then, would be between a small amount of
redundancy versus a rather large leap in terms of lexical semantics in your
original question (see my closing comment).

> therefore, and heres where my post became a question,
> i wondered if anyone knew of any text where the word is used in the sense
of
> ihospitible.
> i truly appreciate your concern with my methodology but i can assure you,
i
> have it well in hand.
> so, do you know of any text where the word is used in this sense? (i mean
> besides here in jude of course)

No, and I doubt that we will ever find one. In terms of statistical
probability, there is so much lexical distance between the core meanings of
EKPORNEUW and AFILOFRONWS (and related forms) that it is highly unlikely
(scientifically, that is) that we will ever find any relationship between
them, even metaphorically. But we've been up against slim odds before and
have found new language insights, so your original question is still
appropriate to ask.

Wayne
---
Wayne Leman
Bible translation site: http://www.geocities.com/bible_translation/



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