Stephen Carlson wrote:Cite? Text?
Sorry about that, Stephen, I didn't want to put people off from discussing the topic by saying too many of my ideas up front. I hoped that people could share their own experiences with the words and their own reaction and feelings about them. But anyway, thank you for asking to know mine.
One of the theoretical bases for the question is the vocabulary type - "
Variable Phrases" (Being one of 5 types of vocabulary units that need to be learnt:
- single words - all what Trenchard is full of,
- set phrases - ὀψίας δὲ γενομένης, recurrent formulaic unit of speach
- variable phrases - ἔπεσεν ἐπὶ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ, - person of the verb and pronoun change
- phrasal verbs and idioms - Τί ἐμοὶ καὶ σοί - meaning needs to be explained
(
Summarised from An Introduction to Second Language Vocabulary)
The reason for using that theoretical basis is because the phrase - ἀπέθανεν <person> καὶ ἐτάφη seems to be a variable phrase taken from the LXX. (Genesis 35:19, Deuteronomy 10:6,
et passim) (cf. Genesis 35:28 which has the words used in a lexical chain - key words that express the flow of ideas of a theme in a text - but not in a variable phrase - defined above - as such). There is a variation in
Acts 2:29 wrote:ἐτελεύτησεν καὶ ἐτάφη
as in Genesis 50:26, Numbers 20:10,
et passim. I take those two variations as one variable phrase, because ἀπέθανεν and ἐτελεύτησεν close synonyms.
In other places, θάπτειν is used very matter of a factly, without the suggestion that we should think much about the whole of the process that had to be gone through to get the person into the ground.
cwconrad wrote:I'd think the place to start on something like this is Louw & Nida, specifically §52 "Funerals and Burial".
Questioning Louw & Nida is what led me to ask this question. From their meanings, "Prepare for burial" and "bury", it seems that they took the two words as being in a lexical chain - part of a sequence of things that happen. I think that because ἐνταφιάζειν and θάπτειν never occur together, it may be that they
do not form a lexical chain. It may also be that they differ in terms of
usage - that is to say what language you
use about which topic, with whom and where. This is the other one of my theoretical bases I think is useful to use when discussing these two words.
In this case, I think that ἐνταφιάζειν is
used to describe the whole process that was customarily gone through when someone dies, and θάπτειν is
used to descibe it succinctly. There are some details of the process described in the two passages that it is used in:
Matthew 26:12 wrote:Βαλοῦσα γὰρ αὕτη τὸ μύρον τοῦτο ἐπὶ τοῦ σώματός μου, πρὸς τὸ ἐνταφιάσαι με ἐποίησεν.
She herself placing this fragrant oil upon my body, has done it to me as part of what is dictated by custom for my burial (= not as an extravigance in life)
and
John 19:40 wrote:Ἔλαβον οὖν τὸ σῶμα τοῦ Ἰησοῦ, καὶ ἔδησαν αὐτὸ ἐν ὀθονίοις μετὰ τῶν ἀρωμάτων, καθὼς ἔθος ἐστὶν τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις ἐνταφιάζειν.
I took the body of Jesus, and they wrapped it in a large amount of cloth with pungent spices, strictly following the whole burial custom followed by the Jews.
Perhaps if John had a wider vocabulary, he may have used ἐντάφιον instead of ὀθόνιον "bandages".
It seems to me that the difference ἐνταφιάζειν and θάπτειν is like between the difference between, "I had a buffet luncheon with my friends" and "I ate with my friends", or the difference between "He died after a long struggle with cancer." and "He passed away.". Those things that I just said are my reasons for thinking that.