[B-Greek] 1 Tim4:10

Yancy Smith yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net
Thu May 6 13:46:45 EDT 2010


Tony Pope said:
>I haven't read Poythress's paper (and unfortunately Rick's links don't work for me), but having read
Skeat's paper I don't see that it can be so easily dismissed as Iver and Yancy seem to do. Skeat
points out that the sense of MALISTA he exemplifies is one that would not be expected in formal
prose but is exactly the kind of locution that would be found in a dictated letter. He gives four
examples from papyri and one from a speech.
[Yancy Smith] A minor special lexical use of MALISTA as "namely, that is," etc. is established for Egyptian-Greek. But, it is very rare in the more than 100 appearances of MALISTA. 

καὶ ἀγόρασον ἡμῖν εἰς ἀποστολὴν τοῖς Ἰσιείοις οἷς ἔχομεν συνήθειαν πέμπειν, μάλιστα τοῖς
στρατηγοῖς [orthography regularized]
KAI AGORASON hHMIN EIS APOSTOLHN TOIS ISIEIOIS hOIS ECOMEN SUNHQEIAN PEMPEIN, MALISTA TOIS
STRATHGOIS
Letter #118 in Fayum Towns and their papyri, ed Grenfell & Hunt 1900
Editors' tr.: "Buy us some presents for the Isis festival for the persons we are accustomed to send
to, especially the
strategi" [Skeat: in other words, the strategi]
[Yancy Smith] This one is debatable.

πᾶν νόμισμα προσίεσθαι πλὴν μάλιστα παρατύπου καὶ κιβδήλου
PAN NOMISMA PROSIESQAI PLHN MALISTA PARATUPOU KAI KIBDHLOU
P. Oxy 1411
Edd: "to accept and exchange all coin except the absolutely spurious and counterfeit" [Skeat:
except, that is,
anything forged or fraudulent]
[Yancy Smith] PLHN MALISTA is different because PLHN as a adverbial conjuction encodes the discourse instruction, "what comes after is an exception to what comes before." Here MALISTA could also mean "of course."

>καὶ περὶ τούτου η..ατο ὁ μεικρὸς Π[α]γένης ὥς τινων π<ε>ινωντων ἐν τῳ ἐποικίῳ μάλιστα
Λου[..]υ. μάθε οὖν καὶ ποίησον α[ὐτο]ῖς δοθῆναι ὑπὸ Βησαρίωνος εἰς διατροφὰς ὀλίγα
σιτάρια ἐπιδείξας αὐτῷ τὰ γράμματά μου.
KAI PERI TOUTOU H..ATO hO MEIKROS PAGENHS hWS TINWN PEINWNTWN EN TWi EPOIKIWi MALISTA
LOU..U. MAQE OUN KAI POIHSON AUTOIS DOQHNAI hUPO BHSARIWNOS EIS DIATROFAS OLIGA
SITARIA EPIDEIXAS AUTWi TA GRAMMATA MOU.
P. Oxy 3253, ll. 14-21
Edd: "Also about this little Pagenes [Skeat: Pagenes the younger] ... that some were going hungry,
especially in the
settlement of Lu..s. Find out and see to it that a little grain is given them for food by Besarion,
showing him
my letters [Skeat: this letter of mine]."  [Skeat: the edd. recognize in a comment that their tr.
does not suit the
position of MALISTA, and Skeat proposes "in the settlement, I mean Lou..u."]
[Yancy Smith] This is a good example, solid.

ἔτι μὴν καὶ τῶν καταλελιμμένων μοι μάλιστα ὑπ’ αὐτοῦ τοῦ πατρὸς ὑπαρχόντων ὑπὸ
βιαίων καὶ δυναστῶν παρανόμως κρατηθέντων,
ETI MHN KAI TWN KATALELIMMENWN MOI MALISTA hUP' AUTOU TOU PATROS hUPARCONTWN hUPO
BIAIWN KAI DUNASTWN PARANOMWS KRATHQENTWN
P. Oxy 3302
Edd: "and when the property left to me, especially that left to me by my father, was illegally
detained by violent
and influential persons" [Skeat: when the property left to me -- in fact by my own father -- was
illegally
detained ...]
[Yancy Smith] MALISTA here means "especially," not because it is referring to a different class of goods, but that the fact that his goods could be considered more than goods left to him by anyone. They were left to him by his father.  It signals the egregiousness of the crime. To translate "that is" would not be appropriate. Skeat appropriately intensifies by translating "in fact." 

>μετεστειλάμεθά σου τὴν περιφάνειαν ὥστε καὶ τοῖς βασιλικοῖς ὑπερετῆσαι προστάγμασι καὶ
τοῖς θεοῖς τὴν προσήκουσαν θυσίαν προσενεγκεῖν, μάλιστα τῷ πατρὶ θεῶν τῷ μεγάλῳ Διί,
Ἀπόλλωνί τε καὶ τῇ φίλῃ παρθένῳ Ἀρτέμιδι.
METESTEILAMEQA SOU THN PERIFANEIAN hWSTE KAI TOIS BASILIKOIS hUPERETHSAI PROSTAGMASI KAI
TOIS QEOIS THN PROSHKOUSAN QUSIAN PROSENEGKEIN, MALISTA TWi PATRI QEWN TWi MEGALWi DII,
APOLLWNI TE KAI THi FILhi PARQENWi ARTEMIDI.
Acts of St Eudoxius, PG 115, 624C, speech of the prefect to the martyr.
Skeat: MALISTA specifies which deities are meant.
 [Yancy Smith] This is another case of undertranslation, because "to make offerings to TOIS QEOIS" is another way of saying to practice EUSEBEIA. That the three gods Zeus, Apollo and Artemis are mentioned is an intensification of the EUSEBEIA, not a mere specification of gods. 

Skeat applies his proposal to three passages in the pastoral epistles: 2 Tim 4.13, where Paul's
point is not that he had a large library in Troas of which Timothy should be sure to bring at least
the parchments. Rather, the MEMBRANA were notebooks in codex form (as others have proposed) and that
was the particular kind of BIBLIA that Paul meant when he used the word. (Precisely what the items
were may be arguable but the scenario is still reasonable, in my view.)

Secondly, Titus 1.10, where Paul's point is not that there are many empty talkers and deceivers in
Crete of all persuasions, of which the Jewish ones are to be singled out. Rather, Paul is thinking
from the start only of Jewish empty talkers and deceivers but he expresses himself at first by
describing their qualities and then defines the group he has in mind to make himself clear.
[Yancy Smith] This interpretation is belied by the very general reference in v. 12, Κρῆτες ἀεὶ ψεῦσται, κακὰ θηρία, γαστέρες ἀργαί. Rather, Paul's meaning here is "I am talking *mainly* about some of the Jewish believers." MALISTA here switches the scenario unexpectedly since Εἰσὶν γὰρ πολλοὶ [καὶ] ἀνυπότακτοι, ματαιολόγοι καὶ φρεναπάται, is hearer old information about Cretans, precisely the sort of things fun loving Cretans, jokingly said about themselves.  μάλιστα [sc. LEGW] οἱ ἐκ τῆς περιτομῆς, is ironic and introduces hearer new information. It thus has a discourse function and does not simply mean, namely. That fact that Paul could also apply his statements to other Cretans is a humorous aside in v. 12.

Thirdly, in 1 Tim 4.10 Skeat argues that his view "gives better sense, since although God is the
potential Saviour of all, He can only be the Saviour of those who accept him."
[Yancy Smith] This analysis is flawed because it misses the fact that SWTHR PANTWN ANQRWPWN, "savior of all people" was a contested, socially recognized category occupied by emperors and gods. We go astray when we merely assume our present day understanding of salvation without first hearing how this text sounded when generals, emperors, gods, and other politicians were regularly called SWTHR PANTWN ANQRWPWN. But within that context SWTHR PANTWN ANQRWPWN is functionally equivalent to KURIOS. Just as there is no qualm with Jesus being KURIOS PANTWN, but especially of those who confess him, there is not qualm with Jesus being SWTHR PANTWN ANQRWPWN, but especially of those who believe. His is SWTHR in that he runs and orders the world, but the intensification of that saving activity including his sacrifice and all the rest is only effective for eternal, eschatological salvation for those who believe. Skeat goes seems to go wrong in that he assumes a non-Greco-Roman understanding of SWTHR.


[Yancy Smith] >It's worth noting that a contrast with "all" comes in Gal 6.10 PROS PANTAS, MALISTA DE PROS TOUS
OIKEIOUS THS PISTEWS "to all, especially to the household of the faith" and Phil 4.22 PANTES hOI
hAGIOI, MALISTA DE hOI EK THS KAISAROS OIKIAS "all the holy ones, especially those of Caesar's
house". But in those two examples there is a DE, which presumably indicates a shift, thus indicating
the other, well-known sense of MALISTA. The three NT passages discussed by Skeat have no DE.
[Yancy Smith] DE is not necessary for what comes after MALISTA to be specifying or intensive. The disjunction can just as well be signaled with no conjunction at all in Greek. A DE merely makes the disjunction more explicit.

Yancy





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