From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Mon Jan 15 1996 - 17:02:38 EST
At 1:49 PM 1/15/96, Jim Beale wrote:
>In Romans 1:28, the word KAQHKONTA appears, and is usually translated
>"not seemly," or "not proper," or some equivalent. Yet, it seems, for
>the most part, in the NT and classical greek, KAQIHMI means more like
>"to let down."
>
>Luke 5:19 ...... KAQHKAN (aorist) ................... "let down"
>Acts 9:25 ...... KAQHKAN (aorist) ................... "let down"
>Acts 10:11 ..... KAQIEMENON (present participle) .... "let down"
>Acts 11:5 ...... KAQIEMENHN (present participle) .... "let down"
>Acts 22:22 ..... KAQHKEN (imperfect) ................ "proper"
>Rom 1:28 ....... KAQHKONTA (present participle) ..... "proper"
>
>In LSJ there is no mention of anything remotely related to 'proper'
>so I'm wondering about the history of the word, and how it came to bear
>this seemingly unrelated meaning. Can anyone shed any light on this?
First of all, this doesn't come from KAQIHMI but rather from KAQHKW, a
compound of hHKW, a perfective present tense meaning "I have come" (much
the same sense, in fact, as Hellenistic PAREIMI).
The form in question is TA MH KAQHKONTA -- PAREDWKEN AUTOUS hO QEOS EIS
ADOKIMON NOUN, POIEIN TA MH KAQHKONTA.
What should be noted here is that it is a neuter participle in the plural.
This is not really related to other standard usages of KAQIHMI, I believe,
but rather to the Stoic sense of TO KAQHKON as the equivalent of TO PREPON,
"what is fitting," "what is seemly." TO KAQHKON is the Stoic term (or one
of them for "duty"--what one OUGHT to do, and I recall seeing somewhere,
long ago (so long that I can't remember whose explanation this was), that
TO KAQHKON is that part of the work of the universal LOGOS which "comes
down" to each individual as his/her obligation to execute. Accordingly, TA
MH KAQHKONTA will be "those things which one ought to avoid doing" (just as
OU DEI doesn't mean "it isn't necessary to do ..." but rather "it behooves
one NOT to do ...", so here these are the things it behooves one NOT to
do).
You might note the parallel masculine nominative form of this participle of
the same verb: hOI KAQHKONTES = one's kinsmen, (Latin SUI, PROPRII "one's
own people").
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, USA 63130
(314) 935-4018
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwc@oui.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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