[b-greek] RE: Greek idioms

From: Mike Sangrey (msangrey@BlueFeltHat.org)
Date: Tue Mar 27 2001 - 12:16:22 EST


"Paul Zellmer" <pzellmer@sc.rr.com> said:
> I'd be interested in seeing your source of the warning nature of the
> paint. I know of various cultures where graves which are above ground
> are painted white as a sign of continued care for the dead. But I
> have never run across any work, scholarly or not, that proposes what
> you state to be a fact for the first century Jews. In fact, I rather
> doubt it, since the characteristic that is emphasized concerning the
> tombs is that they are hWRAIOS, "beautiful."

The source is a friend of mine who studied Biblical Hebrew in Israel a
number of years ago and was therefore (and thereby) exposed to the
Hebrew culture. He may (or may not) be correct. That's why I'm
asking here: verification. I was sort of hoping Randall Buth would
chime in.

As far as hWRAIOS goes, I'll offer some caution to not be too simple
when moving from Greek to English. This is the danger of a gloss.
When English speakers think of `beautiful' they think in terms of
`form' and `attractiveness', but that doesn't capture hWRAIOS very
well. The Greek words which can be translated `beautiful' (given the
context) are KALOS, hWRAIOS, ASTEIOS, KOSMEW, KOSMOS, EUPREPEIA,
EUSCHMOSUNH, MEGALOPREPHS, and EUSCHMWN (taken right from Louw and
Nida, semantic domain 79:9-15.) Each of these words brings a
different slant on beauty: emphasis on `form', `appropriateness',
`appearance', `attractiveness', `presentation', etc.

So, I think as you've used the word `beautiful' in the above
paragraph, you have expressed a different usage than the Greek word
actually conveys. If I were back-translating your paragraph I would
NOT use hWRAIOS; I would use KOSMOS (cf 1 Pet. 3:3).

hWRAIOS only occurs four times in the GNT. Acts 3:2,10 refer to a
proper name[1] and that presents its own translation problems. In
both Rom. 10:15 and Mat. 23:27 it carries the connotation of
`appropriateness' and I think it still carries in each place a hint of
`ripeness'; and I don't mean to push etymology too far. If we look at
a fruit that beckons us to sink our teeth into it, that fruit is
hWRAIOS.

I would therefore translate in both places as "utterly appropriate".
Unfortunately this fails to convey the nuance of outward appearance,
though that is readily ascertained from its interaction with the other
words in the context. This translation captures the positive ambiance
of the term in Romans and the negative one with poignant irony in
Mat. which I think is quite hWRAION.

As far as what to translate and what is commentary the line between
the two is fuzzy. I'll simply say you want to translate THE source
language meaning for the receptor language text WILL convey A
meaning. You want A meaning to be as close to THE meaning as
possible. And that's NOT simple.

---
[1] Was the hWRAIOS gate in Jerusalem the gate somehow associated with
the market?  Sort of a gate through which `ripe' and therefore
`beautiful' fruit and vegetables originally came through?  Does anyone
know how this gate got its name?

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