[B-Greek] Lightman discusses his two favorite topics
Mark Lightman
lightmanmark at yahoo.com
Sat May 22 12:09:43 EDT 2010
My two favorite topics are
1. Ancient
Greek
2. Mark Lightman
If you translate my surname into Greek, one way
to do it is Φωσφορος (FWSFOROS)
which means something like a
"bringer of light." I'm not sure what a "lightman" is, but
this is
probably the sense of the word, someone who goes around and lights the
lamps
in the Shtetl, or maybe someone who was in charge of the
lighting in the Yiddish theater.
("To be or not to be, oy, what a
question!")
There is this other guy over on B-Latin named Marcus
Lucifer, but that is another story.
Anyway, to get back to the
"topic," since learning Homer, I now realize that there may be
a
better way of rendering "Lightman" into Ancient Greek, namely Φωσφως
(FWSFWS.)
You see, there are actually two words, φως with a circumflex and φως with an acute.
The first is probably from FAINW and means "the thing that shines, light"
while the
second is probably from FUW and means "the thing which is
born," i.e. "a man."
Φως is in fact very common in Homer for "man"
Homer also uses φως for light,
except that he always uses the
uncontracted form φαος (FAOS.) The contracted
form for "light," φως
with the circumflex, occurs 73 times in the Greek NT, but φως with the
acute,
"man," never occurs in Early Christian literature; you won't find it, for example, in BDAG.
But is it possible that John is punning on
these two words in John 1:6ff?
εγενετο ανθρωπος... 8 ουκ ην εκεινος
το φως, αλλ ινα μαρτυρησῃ περι του φωτος.
(EGENETO ANQRWPOS...OUK
HN EKEINOS TO FWS ALL' hINA MARTURHSHi
PERI TOU FWTOS.) "There was a man...This guy was not the Light, but he came
in order to testify about the Light.
Get it? John was a man (φως) who testified about Jesus, who was a light
(φως)
AND a man (φως.) Jesus is a light/man? Yes. That is the
essence of the Christian
gospel, that the very Light of the World became one of us so
that we might be saved
from eternal darkness. Ιησους φωσφως εστιν.
(IHSOUS FWSFWS ESTIN.
The problem with my theory, besides its
obvious narcissism, is that we don't know enough
about the writer and original readers of John to know whether they would have gotten
the
pun. Was the word φως (man) still understood among whoever wrote and
read
this Gospel? Did these folks read any Homer? How the heck
would I know?
How the heck would anyone know? This, in essence, is
the problem, not with
a little Greek, but with a lot of Greek. The
more Greek you know, the more likely
you are to read things into the text which may or
may not be there.
But, getting back to the topic, what do you
guys think of Φωσφως Μαρκος?( FWSFWS MARKOS)
Does this
anachronistically mix dialectical epochs, and even if it does, should
I still use it. Or should I choose? Φαοσφως would be good Homeric Greek and
Φωσανθρωπος would be good Koine, but neither sounds any good.
Any thoughts
on this topic will be appreciated.
.
Mark L
Φωφορος
FWSFOROS MARKOS
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