[B-Greek] Perilanguage, not Metalanguage (was "Fear of fear - 1Pe 3:6")

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Sun May 2 11:10:19 EDT 2010


On May 2, 2010, at 10:07 AM, Mark Lightman wrote:
> Today's Modern Greek leaves the noun out and picks up
> on the MNDEMIAN: φοβουνταν τιποτε (FOBOUNTAN TIPOTE.)
> "They feared nothing, they were afraid of nothing at all." 
> τιποτε in Modern Greek can mean "nothing" or "anything," but that
> is implicit already in the classical meaning.  "They fear...what, pray
> tell me?"  "What in the world did they ever fear...nothing at all."
> 
> We have a similar idiom in English where "He don't know jack"
> means the same as "He knows jack."
> 
> They feared bupkes.   They were afraid to the extent of beans.
> They feared not a whit. These chicas feared nada. 

Thanks, Mark. You have neatly illustrated what you meant with your assertion that TMG (probably better than other Neo-Hellenic versions such as Vamvas, which has και μη φοβουμεναι μηδεμιαν πτοησιν KAI MH FOBOUMENAI MHDEMIAN PTOHSIN, unchanged from the GNT) is, after the LXX, the best "metalanguage" for NT Koine Greek. Your accounting certainly does help one to understand the sense of the original text in 1 Peter 3:6, characterizing the usage in terms of comparable expressions in other langauges.

Of course, that's really not the same thing that we ordinarily mean by a "metalanguage" that offers a grammatical accounting for how and why the locution communicates its meaning. But I'd be willing to coin a new term for it: "perilanguage" -- which I would define as "a roundabout way of explaining what a location communicates in meaning."

Carl W. Conrad

> ________________________________
> From: Oun Kwon <kwonbbl at gmail.com>
> To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> Sent: Sat, May 1, 2010 11:01:56 PM
> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Fear of fear - 1Pe 3:6
> 
> Thank Carl.
> 
> That helps lot.
> 
> I am a little disappointed by the lack of depth treatment by BDAG on
> this word of NT hapax.
> 
> Oun Kwon.
> 
> On Fri, Apr 30, 2010 at 7:37 PM, Carl Conrad <cwconrad2 at mac.com> wrote:
>> On Apr 30, 2010, at 7:05 PM, Oun Kwon wrote:
>>> 1Pe 3:6b
>>> 
>>> hHS EGENHQHTE TEKNA AGAQOPOIOUSAI
>>> KAI MH FOBOUMENAI MHDEMIAN PTOHSIN
>>> 
>>> It is hard to see what the phrase μὴ φοβούμεναι       μηδεμίαν πτόησιν is
>>> trying to tell. (BDAG p. 895 PTOHSIS gives several glosses -
>>> 'terrifying' 'intimidation' 'fear' 'terror'.)
>>> Most English translations do not help much, while some do smooth it over.
>>> 
>>> Is it possible understand this phrase something like 'fear of fear'?
>> 
>> I don't find it in BDAG but I do find "flutter" in LSJ for the verb PTOEW, which appears to be a denominative verb from the root PET/POT/PT whence we derive PIPTW (fall), PETAMAI (fly), PTWSIS (grammatical "case" from "falling", PTWMA (corpse), etc. I think that PTOHSIS really means the "quivering" or "shudder" that is a physical manifestation of fear. That being the case, I would understand MHDEMIAN PTOHSIN not as an object or complement of FOBOUMENOI but rather as an adverbial accusative: "and not being afraid even so much as a shiver" or we might say, "not even so much as a frisson."
>> 
>> Carl W. Conrad



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