From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Thu Feb 14 2002 - 21:36:31 EST
At 8:13 PM -0600 2/14/02, Kevin Cauley wrote:
>I would think that the circumstances in which one would want to translate
>AFAIREW "forgive" would be in a spiritual context such as this. Under the
>Old Law such as in Leviticus 4:20, we have "and the priests shall make an
>atonement for them, and it shall be forgiven them." What better way to
>express to those who were leaving Christianity for Judaism than to say that
>the blood of bulls and goats could not FORGIVE sin? Hence my question, in
>this context, what would the connotative difference be between AFIHMI and
>AFAIREW? Why use AFAIREW as opposed to AFIHMI? Does AFAIREW carry with it
>some quality (such as "objectivality" or something) that AFIHMI does not?
Yes, I think that's about right: AFAIREW is "take away," "remove", and if I
may use the comparison, it would seem that in this context the blood of
bulls and goats is conceived as a sort of detergent that might
theoretically but not in fact remove the "stain" of sin. On the other hand,
AFIHMI is "remit," "let go."
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Carl W. Conrad [mailto:cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu]
>Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2002 12:09 PM
>To: Biblical Greek
>Cc: Biblical Greek
>Subject: [b-greek] Re: AFIHMI/AFAIREW (was AFIHMI and APAIRW)
>
>At 9:13 AM -0600 2/14/02, Paul O. Wendland wrote:
>>Carl W. Conrad wrote:
>>
>>> The simple answer is, NO, these are not really synonyms; AFAIREW means
>>> "remove" (physically), while AFIHMI (or AFIW in it later omega-verb form)
>>> means "let go" or "dismiss."
>>
>>I would agree that there are no exact synomyms, and that despite overlap in
>>semantic domains we must attend to those differences, especially as the
>>context and the collocates of the word lead us to do so.
>>
>>> Nor, I think, would one really want to talk about BLOOD having
>>> the power to
>>> forgive;
>>
>>Perhaps, but perhaps the above statement is too general. Witness:
>>
>>Eph 1:7 EN hWi ECOMEN THN APOLUTRWSIN DIA TOU AIMATOS AUTOU, THN AFESIN TWN
>>PARAPTWMATWN
>
>But even here the first item is EN hWi, with clear reference to Christ.
>
>>>forgiveness is something that depends upon a person's will or
>>> God's will; REMOVAL might be a matter of the instrument.
>>
>>However in this context the issue is not: person vs. instrument. Does not,
>>in fact, an instrument have to be wielded by someone? Doesn't it express
>>the personal will of the wielder? Is it not rather the *inadequacy* of the
>>instrument which is in the foreground here, that is: not a question of
>>blood/death per se being able/unable to effect such a removal, but a
>>question of *what kind of* blood/death can effect such a removal
>>permanently. The killing of beasts could not. But the blood/death of the
>>one spoken of in the following verse could.
>>
>>9.12 OUDE DI' AIMATOS TRAGWN KAI MOSCWN DIA DE TOU IDIOU hAIMATOS EISHLQEN
>>EFAPAX EIS TA hAGIA AIWNIAN LUTRWSIN EURAMENOS.
>>
>>So I guess in this case I don't quite see the viability of drawing too
>sharp
>>a distinction between the force of AFIHMI and AFAIREW. I also don't really
>>understand what distinction is being drawn between physical removal
>>(=AFAIREW) and AFIHMI. After all, weren't missles "physically" let
>>go/launched and wasn't this thought expressed by AFIHMI? I'm thinking in
>>other words, that in some contexts AFIHMI often denotes a physical
>>dislocation. What makes it something "spiritual" is its collocation with
>an
>>abstraction like "sins." So also with AFAIREW: how can someone physically
>>remove an abstraction like sins, or guilt? Doesn't it have to be read in a
>>"spiritual" sense?
>>
>>In this passage, then, I'd just read AFAIREW to mean something like
>>"nullification" and while it doesn't mean exactly the same as forgiveness,
>>when one moves up the ladder of generalization, it comes out to the same
>>basic place.
>
>Even so, one of the original questions was:
>
>>Specifically, could one translate Hebrews 10:4 as follows: "for (there is)
>>no power in the blood of bulls and goats to forgive sin?" Please focus
>>primarily upon the word AFAIREW and if it could be translated, "forgive."
>
>I can't conceive of any circumstances in which one would want to translate
>ADUNATON GAR hAIMA TAURWN KAI TRAGWN AFAIREIN hAMARTIAS as "For it's
>impossible for blood of bulls or goats to FORGIVE sins."
>--
>
>Carl W. Conrad
>Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
>Most months:: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
>cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad@ioa.com
>WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
>
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--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months:: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad@ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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