[b-greek] Re: 1Enoch 8 EPAOIDWN LUTHRION

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Fri Dec 21 2001 - 17:54:23 EST


At 2:04 PM -0800 12/21/01, c stirling bartholomew wrote:
>1Enoch 8
>Codex Panopolitanus
> R.H. CHARLES
> CLARENDON PRESS, 1912
>(note: initial caps are names of AGGELLOI)
>
>8:1 edidaxen tous anqrwpous Azahl macairas poiein kai opla kai aspidas kai
>qwrakas didagmata aggelwn, kai upeidxen autois ta metalla kai thn ergasian
>autwn, kai yelia kai kosmous kai stibeis kai to kallibleyaron kai pantoious
>liqous eklektous kai bafika. 8:2 kai egeneto asebeia pollh, kai eporneusan
>kai apeplanhqhsan kai hfanisqhsan en pasais tais odois autwn. 8:3 Semiazas
>edidaxen epaoidas kai rizotomias, Armarws epaoidwn luthrion Barakihl
>astrologias Cwcihl ta shmeiwtika Saqihl asteroskopian Serihl selhnagwgias.
>8:4 twn oun anqrwpwn apollumenwn h boh eis ouranos anebh.
>
>***
>
>There are a number of rare words here, like SELHNAGWGIAS (8:3) but my
>question isn't about these.
>
>In 8:3, what did ARMARWS teach? My best guess about EPAOIDWN LUTHRION is:
>"the breaking of evil spells" or how to perform the reverse action of what
>SEMIAZAS taught in the clause before.
>
>The translations of the Ethiopic Texts of Enoch are not all that helpful
>since it is assumed by some that the Ethiopic text was made from the Greek
>text. Here are the English renderings of Ethiopic:
>
>RH Charles: "resolving of enchantments"
>R. Laurence "solution of sorcery"

Well, I think that Charles and Laurence are essentially right; it's just
that those aren't very good English phrases to express the essential ideas.
Inasmuch as "spells" (EPAOIDAI) "bind" (DEOUSIN) the persons upon whom they
are cast, a LUTHRION ought to LUEIN the EPAOIDAI,i.e. "undo" them. So I
think I'd English the phrase as "the unbinding of spells" or "dissolution
of spells" or "undoing of spells."

Looks like you're getting into some pretty esoteric stuff of a very
eclectic nature--about as fundamentally Hellenistic as you can get!
--

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University (Emeritus)
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/

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