From: Steven Craig Miller (scmiller@www.plantnet.com)
Date: Sat Dec 04 1999 - 11:18:57 EST
<x-flowed>To: Jeffrey B. Gibson,
<< It strikes me that all that has been, and is being, said on the matter
of whether NHGIKEN was summed up nicely some time ago by my teacher, George
Caird in his (and L.D. Hurst's) _New Testament Theology_, pp. 32ff. [who
writes] "... HNGIKEN may mean "is coming shortly" (James 5:8); 1 Pet 4:7);
but it is also used as a synonym for PARESTI and means "has arrived" (Lam
4:18 LXX)." >>
Perhaps our discussion has jumped from one thread to another, so that it
has been hard to follow. But, with all due respect to George Caird, I would
disagree. IMO this passage in LXX Lamentations does not support the
assertion that HGGIKEN means "has arrived." It seems that Caird wants to
suggest that HGGIKEN hO KAIROS hHMWN means exactly the same as PARESTIN hO
KAIROS hHMWN. But that is not necessarily true. Of course, the LXX is
complicated by the fact that it is often a translation of a Hebrew text.
Here the NRSV translates the Hebrew text as: "They dogged out steps so that
we could not walk in our streets; our end drew near; our days were
numbered; for our end had come" (Lam 4:18 NRSV). To suggest that HGGIKEN
means "has arrived" would be to suggest that here the LXX should be
translated something like: "Our time has arrived; our days were fulfilled;
our time has arrived." Such a translation seems to me to unnecessarily
flatten out the rhetoric of the passage. Why take the two sentences as
meaning the very same thing? I would think that a progression is implied.
The first says "Our time has drawn near" while the last says "our time has
arrived" (Or: "is here"). There is certainly nothing wrong with viewing
these two statements as having two different orientations of the same
event, the first views it as still slightly future, and last as being present.
Caird also writes: << The REB correctly translates Matt 26:46f. as "the
hour has come ... the traitor is upon us ... >>
I can understand why someone might reach such a position, but that wasn't
the position I posted earlier to this list. What I had written was:
As for Mt 26:46, Matthew writes: << "Get up, let us be going. See, my
betrayer is at hand." While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the
twelve, arrived ... >> (Mt 26:46-47a NRSV; cf. Mk 14:42-43a). The Matthean
Jesus says that his betrayer is "near" (or "at hand") right as Judas
himself "arrived." But I would suggest that what we have here is simply
part of the storyteller's art. In fact, to translate this passage as "my
betrayer has come" would spoil (part of) the story. The point of the story
IMO is that Jesus' betrayer arrives just as Jesus tells his disciples that
his betrayer is on his way here.
I'm just looking at this issue from a linguistic point of view, without
making any judgments about crafting theology. It seems to me that the Greek
verb EGGIZW is normally used because the speaker has the orientation that
something is "near" and thus not yet present. From another earlier message
I wrote:
I have some doubts as to whether or not these two meanings ["near" &
"arrived"] are both within the scope of this one word. At the very least,
in consulting BAGD, Louw & Nida, and EDNT, none of these three suggests
that EGGIZW sometimes means "arrived" (or anything else which might
substantiate Dodd's position). I take this to mean that they disagree with
C. H. Dodd. And although BAGD cites Dodd, and (I assume) the debate on this
issue in Expository Times, EDNT simply ignored Dodd (at this entry). In
addition, since Dodd made his point based on supposed LXX usage, I will
note that LEH also ignored Dodd, and do not suggest that EGGIZW sometimes
means "arrived" (or anything similar).
So while I recognize that Dodd and Caird hold a different opinion on this
issue, it doesn't appear that most NT lexicographers concur with them.
-Steven Craig Miller
Alton, Illinois (USA)
scmiller@www.plantnet.com
"Words are like people. To know them well one must meet them on their own
level, in their own environment. In different circumstances they react
differently. Like a face they take on varying expressions. Some of them
move from place to place; some never return to their earlier familiar
surroundings. But to know their past is to know a little better what makes
them act as they do in the present" (Frederick W. Danker, "Multipurpose
Tools for Bible Study," 1993:135).
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