Jas. 1:11 ὁ πλούσιος ... μαρανθήσεται

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Stephen Hughes
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Joined: February 26th, 2013, 7:12 am

Jas. 1:11 ὁ πλούσιος ... μαρανθήσεται

Post by Stephen Hughes »

James 1:11 wrote:οὕτως καὶ ὁ πλούσιος ἐν ταῖς πορείαις αὐτοῦ μαρανθήσεται.
Am I right in assuming that the nuance intended by the choice of the word μαραίνεσθαι is "you don't need to do anything about it"?

Reason being that the mediopasive μαραίνεσθαι "go out of its own accord" as opposed to the active μαραίνειν "quench".

Why would James have chosen the synonym μαραίνεσθαι over σβέννυσθαι​ here?

My first thoughts are that μαραίνεσθαι is more readily used for abstract things such as fame and fortune, or that it more easily evokes a "you don't need to do anything about it" reaction, or that μαραίνεσθαι is a generally positive thing while σβέννυσθαι​ could be either negative or positive. Is anything in that provable? How?

[FWIW if the image of μαραίνεσθαι was recognisably rooted in fire imagery, we could mention that "set fire to" ἅπτεσθαι, and "set ablaze" could be καίειν.]
Γελᾷ δ' ὁ μωρός, κἄν τι μὴ γέλοιον ᾖ
(Menander, Γνῶμαι μονόστιχοι 108)
Tony Pope
Posts: 134
Joined: July 14th, 2011, 6:20 pm

Re: Jas. 1:11 ὁ πλούσιος ... μαρανθήσεται

Post by Tony Pope »

Stephen Hughes wrote: Why would James have chosen the synonym μαραίνεσθαι over σβέννυσθαι​ here?
It's not fire imagery at all. Μαραίνεσθαι was used in hellenistic Greek to denote the withering of plants or fading of flowers, and thence figuratively for premature or unexpected deaths, and so the verb is appropriate in this context.

See C. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament 2:445f for parallels from Philo, etc. (Google may display the first page of the original French, Lexique théologique du NT p. 967, which is most of that entry.) Also LXX Job 15.30 τὸν βλαστὸν αὐτοῦ μαράναι ἄνεμος, 24.24 ἐμαράνθη δὲ ὥσπερ μολόχη ἐν καύματι, Wis 2.8 στεψώμεθα ρόδων κάλυξι πρὶν ἢ μαρανθῆναι.

There is a brief entry in Moulton & Milligan, 388. Cf also the antonymous adjective ἀμάραντος.
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