Luk 11:8 ἀναίδεια

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Iver Larsen
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Joined: May 7th, 2011, 3:52 am

Luk 11:8 ἀναίδεια

Post by Iver Larsen »

The meaning of the phrase τὴν ἀναίδειαν αὐτοῦ in Luk 11:8 is disputed for two reasons. It is not clear who the αὐτοῦ refers to and the exact meaning of ἀναίδειαν here is disputed.

Let me quote the whole of verse 8: λέγω ὑμῖν, εἰ καὶ οὐ δώσει αὐτῷ ἀναστὰς διὰ τὸ εἶναι φίλον αὐτοῦ, διά γε τὴν ἀναίδειαν αὐτοῦ ἐγερθεὶς δώσει αὐτῷ ὅσων χρῄζει.

Jesus tells a hypothetical story that starts in verse 5: Suppose one of you have a friend and you go to that friend at midnight asking to borrow some bread because an unexpected visitor has arrived from a long journey and you have no food to give him. Then suppose your friend inside refuses to do it because it is late, his children and he has already gone to bed and he has bolted the door. It is too much bother to get up in the middle of the night. Jesus stops the story there and continues in v. 8: I tell you: even if he does not get up and give him because of being a friend to him, at least then he will get up and give him what he needs because of his ἀναίδεια. So, Jesus gives the next step of the story in an indirect way. The man inside will eventually get up and give him some bread, not because they are friends, but because of something else.

Does the grammar indicate whether the αὐτοῦ in τὴν ἀναίδειαν αὐτοῦ refers to the man outside or inside?

ἀναίδεια is sometimes translated "shamelessness", but I don't think that is the most helpful gloss. LSJ has: "lack of proper restraint or consideration, intemperateness." The noun form is rare in the Bible, since the only other occurrence is in Sir 25:22. The adjective ἀναιδής is found several times in the LXX. LSJ has: "lacking in restraint, intemperate" or when describing things "unstoppable." The word is basically the opposite of αἰδώς, which refers to awe, reverence, respect, regard for others.. It seems to me that ἀναίδεια refers to a lack of respect or regard for others, inconsiderateness, and therefore most naturally refers to the man outside who did not respect the friend's wish not to be disturbed in the mdidle of the night.

However, others have argued that it would be shameful in the cultural context for the man in bed not to get up and give to his friend. This is demanded both by the social laws of friendship and laws of hospitality. In this view, it is the man inside who does not want to be known as a shameless person and therefore because of "his shamelessness" finally gets up and gives the bread.

Is there sufficient grammatical, lexical and contextual support for this second option?

Iver Larsen
cwconrad
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Re: Luk 11:8 ἀναίδεια

Post by cwconrad »

I've puzzled over this question, but I am not so confident that it can be resolved in terms of the Greek grammar at all. Antecedents of the third-person pronoun are notoriously ambiguous -- not only in Greek but certainly in Greek. Nor is the meaning of ἀναιδεῖα in question; it is insensitivity to the taboos of one's culture. I think that the burden of proof rests upon the interpreter who attributes the ἀναιδεῖα to the sleeping householder rather than to the importunate fellow knocking on the door. I think that the answer to Iver's question is to be sought in the context rather than in the meaning of the Greek word or any clear indication of the pronoun αὐτοῦ. The context here is Jesus' advice to his listeners to be "shameless" in petitioning God -- as opposed to being hesitant about depending on God's good nature. For what it's worth, my opinion is that Jesus' formulation here falls into the category of several of his parables that are termed "παρὰ προσδοκίαν" -- "not what you expect." So in this instance, the "shamelessness" -- and I see nothing wrong with that English gloss -- is a "damnable persistence." Again, I say that the burden of proof rests on those who insist that the word in question should characterize the householder rather than the man knocking on his door late at night.
οὔτοι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν,
ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητέοντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον. (Xenophanes, Fragment 16)

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
Tony Pope
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Re: Luk 11:8 ἀναίδεια

Post by Tony Pope »

To add to Dr Conrad's comment:

If you can get to see it, there is an article by Klyne Snodgrass that focuses on the word ἀναιδεία. He examines 258 or more occurrences and shows it is always a negative term, absence of any sense of shame. Thus, he claims, it cannot be translated "to avoid being shamed" as Bailey et al wish to do. Some references could be understood as "persistence" but this is probably context-dependent. The parable is not intended to characterize God or the one who prays but is a "how much more" argument.

Klyne Snodgrass. ‘Anaideia and the Friend at Midnight.’ Journal of Biblical Literature 116.3, 1997, pp. 505–13
See the first page at http://www.jstor.org/pss/3266672

I've also just discovered an interesting MA thesis (2006) by Ronald A. Julian that deals with the various views.
http://www.rts.edu/Site/Virtual/Resourc ... espair.pdf
His discussion of ἀναιδεία starts on p. 15.
Roy Fredrick
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Re: Luk 11:8 ἀναίδεια

Post by Roy Fredrick »

Iver Larsen wrote:The meaning of the phrase τὴν ἀναίδειαν αὐτοῦ in Luk 11:8 is disputed for two reasons. It is not clear who the αὐτοῦ refers to and the exact meaning of ἀναίδειαν here is disputed.

Let me quote the whole of verse 8: λέγω ὑμῖν, εἰ καὶ οὐ δώσει αὐτῷ ἀναστὰς διὰ τὸ εἶναι φίλον αὐτοῦ, διά γε τὴν ἀναίδειαν αὐτοῦ ἐγερθεὶς δώσει αὐτῷ ὅσων χρῄζει.

Does the grammar indicate whether the αὐτοῦ in τὴν ἀναίδειαν αὐτοῦ refers to the man outside or inside?

Is there sufficient grammatical, lexical and contextual support for this second option? Iver Larsen
No, the man inside is Christ, the man who is on the outside is the one who is his friend
Luke 11:8 (CJB) 8 But I tell you, even if he won’t get up because the man is his friend, yet because of the man’s hutzpah he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

Luke 11:8 (ESV) 8 I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs.
Luke 11:8 Lexham English Bible (LEB) 8 I tell you, even if he does not give him anything[a] after he gets up because he is his friend, at any rate because of his impudence[c] he will get up and[d] give him whatever he needs.
c.Luke 11:8 Or “shamelessness”; some translate as “persistence” based on the context, though this is not the normal meaning of the word
Luke 11:8 (CEB) 8 I assure you, even if he wouldn’t get up and help because of his friendship, he will get up and give his friend whatever he needs because of his friend’s brashness.
with no definite protasis understood, to express what would have been likely to happen, or might have happened in past time
ἢ γάρ μιν ζωόν γε κιχήσεαι Henry George Liddell. Robert Scott http://perseus.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/phi ... 4:2:12.LSJ
ἀναίδεια αναιδής impudence; rudeness, insolence, lack of respect, effrontery, audacity, nerve noun: accusative singular feminine

Consider also the was the reason why he said:Mar 4:34 But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples.
1Ch 25:5 All these were the sons of Heman the king's seer in the words of God, to lift up the horn.
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