[B-Greek] Revelation 14:4--PARQENOI GAR EISIN‏

Leonard Jayawardena leonardj at live.com
Sat Sep 6 08:35:01 EDT 2008


Carl W. Conrad wrote: BDAG s.v. PARQENOS (B) notes several instances of usage of the noun for men:======b. male virgin ὁ παρθένος [hO PARAQENOS] virgin, chaste man (CIG IV, 8784b; JosAs 8:1 uses π. of Joseph; Pel.-Leg. 27, 1 uses it of Abel; Suda of Abel and Melchizedek; Nonnus of the apostle John, who is also called ‘virgo’ in the Monarchian Prologues [Kl. T. 12 1908, p. 13, 13]) Rv 14:4 (on topical relation to 1 En 15:2–7 al., s. DOlson, CBQ 59, ’97, 492–510).—JFord, The Mng. of ‘Virgin’, NTS 12, ’66, 293–99.—B. 90. New Docs 4, 224–27. DELG. M-M. EDNT. TW. Spicq. Sv.======Fr Patrick B. O'Grady wrote: The use of the word, PARQENOS, in the early Christian and subsequentOrthodox Christian tradition remains straightforward; later, frequentlyin hagiography as male or female monastics. Among early virginsmentioned in hagiographical literature: the Theotokos, of course, andJohn the Evangelist, and so on...I would add here, that the derivation (as far as I can determine,unknown) probably is a substantive of a compound adjective, since suchcompounds using -OS declensional endings for male retain the same forfemale genders. E.g., H ORQODOXOS EKKLHSIA.  N.E. Barry Hofstetter wrote:Carl has already given you the instances cited iin BDAG, but you should realize that ancient Greek is very flexible in this regard. A noun which is normally masculine can be given the feminine article, and vice versa. This is quite common, and really causes no one any difficulties. Leonard Jayawardena: All the instances of usage of PARQENOS cited in the BDAG for the meaning "unmarried man" occur in POST-GNT CHRISTIAN LITERATURE--except, of course, Rev. 14:4--and are in all probability influenced by a literal interpretation of PARQENOI in Revelation 14:4. If I am right on this, the use of PARQENOS in the works cited by BDAG cannot tell us what this word meant to John and the readers of his book in the first century. This would be analogous to the situation with QEOPNEUSTOS in 2 Timothy 3:16, where any use of this word in early Christian writers cannot be decisive in determining the meaning of this word as used by Paul, because the laters Christian writers could easily have used it as THEY understood Paul's use of this word.  I think "unmarried man" as a possible meaning of PARQENOS could NOT have been available to John and his readers, otherwise he would not have used it where he did, the reason being that the use of this word immediately after hOUTOI EISIN hOI META GUNAIKWN OUK EMOLUNQHSAN could have resulted in the very real possibility of taking the 144,000 as "unmarried men" with the implication that sexual relations with a woman per se defiles a man--a notion utterly foreign to the Bible. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that John DEPENDS on the impossibility of men being PARQENOI in the Greek language of his day to have the words hOUTOI EISIN hOI META GUNAIKWN OUK EMOLUNQHSAN correctly understood by his readers. This is somewhat analogous to the swarm of locusts in Rev. 9 which is said to have "a king over them" in contradiction of Proverbs 30:27 and in defiance of a well-established biological fact. Indeed, the principle of the impossibility of a literal meaning is used not uncommonly in the Bible, including esp. in Revelation, to force the reader towards a figurative interpretation.  Another prominent example from Revelation is the omission of the tribe of Dan from the list of tribes in Chapter 7 in spite of the inclusion of this tribe in every enumeration of the twelve tribes in the OT and the mention of the tribe of the Joseph AND Manasseh (!) to make up the twelve tribes.   
I'd like to know what others think.Leonard JayawardenaSri Lanka  On Sep 5, 2008, at 6:10 AM, Leonard Jayawardena wrote:>> Revelation 14:4: hOUTOI EISIN hOI META GUNAIKWN OUK EMOLUNQHSAN, > PARQENOI GAR EISIN, hOUTOI hOI AKOLOUQOUNTES TW ARNIW....>> An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon based on the seventh edition > of Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicon has the following under > PARQENOS: "... as masc., [PARQENOS, hO], an unmarried man, N.T. > (Deriv. unknown.).">> This part of the dictionary entry must be based on the use of this > word in Revelation 14:4 as the word unambiguously refers to females > in the rest of the NT. Actually, the use of PARQENOI in the above > verse is metaphorical, being based on the NT teaching that the NT > church, represented by the 144,000, is the "bride" and "wife" of > Christ. Paul writes, ZHLW GAR hUMAS QEOU ZHLW hHRMOSUNHN GAR hUMAS > hENI ANDRI PARQENON hAGNHN PARASTHSAI TWi CRISTWi. In Revelation > itself the church is called the lamb's NUMFH and GUNH (19:7;21:9). > This itself is based on the similar relationship between God and > Israel of the OT. PARQENOS as used of the church in Rev. 14:4, which > is the heavenly city of Jerusalem (Rev. 21:9ff; Galatians 4:26; > Hebrews 12:22), is the antonym of the PORNH of Rev. 17, who > represents the earthly city (of imperial Rome, as I understand).>> The use of the plural PARQENOI in Rev. 14:4 implies that each member > of the church is also a virgin spiritually. This is analogous to the > church being called the temple of God when her members are viewed as > working as a team towards the goal of building a habitation for God > in the spirit (Ephesians 2:19ff) , while each individual member is > also the temple of God (1 Corinthians 6:19), the latter of which in > fact is the ultimate reality.> In view of the foregoing, the meaning of PARQENOS as an "unmarried > man" in the above-mentioned dictionary entry is based on a wrong > interpretation of Rev. 14:4. I'd like to know whether PARQENOS is > ever used in ancient Greek literature in reference to unmarried > males.  Leonard JayawardenaSri Lanka 
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