[B-Greek] Revelation 14:4--PARQENOI GAR EISIN
Oun Kwon
kwonbbl at gmail.com
Sun Sep 7 17:25:53 EDT 2008
2008/9/7 Leonard Jayawardena <leonardj at live.com>:
>
In my post of this morning, I wrote the following: "So is it possible
that the use of PARQENOS in Greek literature AFTER the GNT is a later
development in the language, influenced at least partly by a literal
interpretation of Rev. 14:4?" I have inadvertently omitted some words
and the above sentence should correctly read as follows: "So is it
possible that the use of PARQENOS in the sense of "unmarried man" in
Greek literature AFTER the GNT is a later development in the language,
influenced at least partly by a literal interpretation of Rev. 14:4?"
>At the time of writing GFS has already replied to my post. My thanks to him for that. I think there is a further point supporting my position that PARQENOS in Rev. 14:4 is used (of the NT church, represented by the 144,000) in its usual sense of "a woman who has had no sexual intercourse" albeit in a metaphorical cryptic manner. The hEKATON TESSERAKONTA TESSARES CILIADES in 14:1 is followed by the feminine participle ECOUSAI, denoting that the 144,000 are women.
>But at the end of v. 3 the identical phrase is preceded by the nominative feminine plural article (hAI) BUT followed by a masculine participle!: hAI hEKATON TESSERAKONTA TESSARES CILIADES, hOI HGORASMENOI APO THS GHS. This is followed by hOUTOI EISIN hOI META GUNAIKWN OUK EMOLUNQHSAN, PARQENOI GAR EISIN, hOUTOI hOI AKOULOUQOUNTES TWi ARNIWi.
>Unless John was drunk at the time of writing, he must have meant something by these "solecisms." Since masculine forms would suffice for a mixed group of males and females, the shift from feminine to masculine articles and participles must be significant-- a point that is lost in English translations. If we understand hOUTOI EISIN hOI META GUNAIKWN OUK EMOLUNQHSAN in a metaphorical sense to mean that the 144,000 are spiritually undefiled (cf. Exodus 19:15: "... do not go near a woman"; Lev. 15:18; 1 Sam. 21:4-5) and PARQENOI GAR EISIN in a metaphorical sense to mean "spiritually chaste" (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:2: GAR hUMAS QEOU ZHLW hHRMOSUNHN GAR hUMAS hENI ANDRI PARQENON hAGNHN PARASTHSAI TWi CRISTWi), then this would provide an explanation for the apparently weird grammar in the verses in question: The use of both the masculine and the feminine is intended to indicate that the 144,000 are both all men and all women. This is a paradox that can only be resolved by a figurative interpretation and material for just such an interpretation is given close at hand in the same chaper in v. 4. Bear in mind that the figure of 144,000 is itself symbolical. I would repeat a point made in an earlier post. If PARQENOS also bore the sense of "unmarried man" in the Greek of John's day, then the use of the word immediately after hOUTOI EISIN hOI META GUNAIKWN OUK EMOLUNQHSAN would require us to take those referred to by these words as "unmarried men" with the implication that sexual relations with a woman per se defiles a man--a notion utterly foreign to the Bible. I don't see how a metaphorical interpretation would be possible. That is why BDAG and Liddell and Scott's cite Rev. 14:4 for the meaning "unmarried man" for PARQENOS. I think John used this word in v. 4 PRECISELY BECAUSE IT COULD NOT MEAN an "unmarried man" in his day to indicate that the preceding words were not to be taken literally. Add also to this the fact that there are no known instances of the use of PARQENOS in the sense of "unmarried man" in Greek literature predating the GNT.
> Leonard Jayawardena
> Sri Lanka
Hi Leonard,
One thing I like to ask about. I know grammatical gender does not
reflect biological sex. (E.g. God is masculine but it does not mean
'male'). Is PARQENOS to be an exception?
Even though I admit that 'virigin' in a sense of virgin female can be
used figurative for virgin male, why should we be hung up on the
grammatical gender of PARQENOS (if it's only masculine) to determine
what the text say? (I am not sure is there a specific Greek word for
the male counter part anyway.)
Oun.
P.S.
Can you use paragraph freely in your posting so that it can be read easy?
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