ἀλλήλους

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mikeatnip
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Joined: May 6th, 2020, 12:07 pm

ἀλλήλους

Post by mikeatnip »

I am trying to wrap my head around the semantics of ἀλλήλους, as used in verses like 1 Thes. 4:9: Περὶ δὲ τῆς φιλαδελφίας οὐ χρείαν ἔχετε γράφειν ὑμῖν· αὐτοὶ γὰρ ὑμεῖς θεοδίδακτοί ἐστε εἰς τὸ ἀγαπᾷν ἀλλήλους·
So is ἀλλήλους limited to a "recipricality," meaning that Christians are to "love each other" but not necessarily "love others outside of the Christian community? Some uses clearly seem to have that contextual limitation, although obviously other verses teach us to love non-Christians. I am trying to get the semantics of the word, not a doctrine.
Or, does ἀλλήλους sometimes extend into a more expanded semantic of love "others including those outside of recipricality"? Most of my lexicons point towards recipricality, but some like the Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek tend to give a sense of "another's" in a broader sense of "anyone" or "others."
Any thoughts or resources to help me through this?
Mike Atnip
May I not debate presumptuously; may I not be silent impudently. May I learn beneficial speech; may I acquire discerning silence. -Ephrem the Syrian
Stirling Bartholomew
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Re: ἀλλήλους

Post by Stirling Bartholomew »

mikeatnip wrote: October 26th, 2022, 2:24 pm but some like the Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek ...

This can do nothing but lead you astray. Like looking at LSJ. Solve the problem for one contextual use at a time. What does it mean in 1 Thes. 4:9? Suggest reading Reinier de Blois on contextual semantic domains. Anything you can find. For example:

Lexicography and Cognitive Linguistics: Hebrew Metaphors from a Cognitive Perspective

Reinier de Blois, January 2004
C. Stirling Bartholomew
Jonathan Robie
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Re: ἀλλήλους

Post by Jonathan Robie »

mikeatnip wrote: October 26th, 2022, 2:24 pm Or, does ἀλλήλους sometimes extend into a more expanded semantic of love "others including those outside of recipricality"? Most of my lexicons point towards recipricality, but some like the Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek tend to give a sense of "another's" in a broader sense of "anyone" or "others."
Any thoughts or resources to help me through this?
Apologies for not responding sooner - you may have this figured out by now, but in case this is still helpful ...

I think this is the definition you were looking at?
ἀλλήλων ἄλλος, ἄλλος gen. pl. one the other, reciprocally, in exchange, of two (or more) pers. or things for 1, 2, 3, etc. pl. IL. 4.62, al. OD. 1.209, al. HDT. 1.74.6, al. etc.; ἀλλήλων ἀλεείνοντες βέλεα avoiding one another’s arrows IL. 17.374; ἠδίκουν ἀλλήλους they wronged one another PLAT. Prot. 322b; ὑμᾶς συγχωρεῖν καὶ ἀλλήλοις … ἀμφισβητεῖν that you get together and hold discussion among yourselves PLAT. Prot. 337a; ἡ πρὸς ἀλλήλους φιλία reciprocal friendship LYS. 33.2; ἵνα ἀγαπᾶτε ἀλλήλους that you may love one another NT John 13:34 | frequently with prep. OD. 22.389 AESCHL. Pers. 189, al. etc.; ἐπολέμησαν πρὸς ἀλλήλους they fought against each other THUC. 1.1.1; παραβαλόντες … παρ’ ἀλλήλους σκεψώμεθα εἴ τι διοίσουσιν ἀλλήλων placing the two methods in comparison, let us see whether they differ from one another PLAT. Gorg. 472c; πρὸς αὑτὰ καὶ πρὸς ἄλληλα in relation to themselves and to each other PLAT. Gorg. 451c dat. pl. ἀλλήλοις -αις -οις, acc. -ους -ας ἄλληλα | gen. dat. masc. fem. neut. dual ἀλλήλοιν epic -οιιν gen. fem. -αιν XEN. Mem. 2.3.18 (mss.), acc. masc. fem. neut. ἀλλήλω | sg. πρὸς ἄλληλον I IG 22.1668.59 (IVBCE) ‖ Dor. ἀλλᾱ́λ-.

Franco Montanari, ed. Madeleine Goh and Chad Schroeder, The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2015).
I think ἀλλήλους involves two or more participating in a shared action or relationship, but it does not specify what that relationship is. Louw and Nida capture that nicely:
92.26 ἀλλήλων, οις, ους; ἑαυτῶν: a reciprocal reference between entities—‘each other, one another.’
ἀλλήλων: καθ̓ εἷς ἀλλήλων μέλη ‘individually members of one another’ Ro 12:5; μὴ καταλαλεῖτε ἀλλήλων ‘do not slander one another’ Jas 4:11; τοῦτο δέ ἐστιν συμπαρακληθῆναι ἐν ὑμῖν διὰ τῆς ἐν ἀλλήλοις πίστεως ὑμῶν τε καὶ ἐμοῦ ‘what I mean is that both you and I will be encouraged while among you, you by my faith and I by yours’ Ro 1:12; ἐφοβήθησαν φόβον μέγαν, καὶ ἔλεγον πρὸς ἀλλήλους ‘they became very much afraid and said to one another’ Mk 4:41.
ἑαυτῶν: οἱ δὲ περισσῶς ἐξεπλήσσοντο λέγοντες πρὸς ἑαυτούς ‘and they were completely astonished, saying to one another’ Mk 10:26; χαριζόμενοι ἑαυτοῖς ‘forgiving one another’ Eph 4:32.

Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 815.
I suspect you may be seeing the deeper meanings that this word can take in some contexts, but the word itself is much more pedestrian than that. A dictionary like BDAG brings out its contextual meanings in some contexts (as Stirling was pointing out):
ἀλλήλων gen. of the reciprocal pron.; dat. ἀλλήλοις; acc. ἀλλήλους (Hom.+; Schwyzer I 446, n. 8) each other, one another, mutually, ἀλλήλων μέλη members of one another Ro 12:5; Eph 4:25; 1 Cl 46:7. ἀ. τὰ βάρη Gal 6:2. καταλαλεῖν ἀ. slander each other Js 4:11; ἀνέχεσθαι ἀ. Col 3:13; ἀπʼ ἀ. Mt 25:32; Ac 15:39; κατʼ ἀ. (Appian, Bell. Civ. 5, 24 §95) Js 5:9; μετʼ ἀ. J 6:43; 11:56; 16:19; ITr 12:2; μεταξὺ ἀ. Ro 2:15; παρὰ ἀ. J 5:44; ὑπὲρ ἀ. 1 Cor 12:25; Js 5:16 ὑπʼ ἀ. (Appian, Bell. Civ. 5, 22 §89) Gal 5:15.—ἀλλήλοις ἀντίκειται Gal 5:17; ἐγκαλεῖν ἀ. Ac 19:38; ἐν ἀ. (Jos., Bell. 2, 127, Ant. 9, 240; Just., D. 101, 3): εἰρηνεύειν Mk 9:50; cp. J 13:35; Ro 15:5.—ἀλλήλους: ἀγαπᾶν ἀ. J 13:34; Ro 13:8; 1 Th 4:9; 1J 3:11; 2J 5; 2 Cl 9:6; παραδιδόναι ἀ. Mt 24:10; πρὸς ἀ. (Ael. Aristid. 46 p. 404 D.; En 6:2; Jos., Ant. 2, 108; Just., A I, 61, 10) Mk 4:41; 8:16; εἰς ἀ. J 13:22; Ro 12:10 (cp. ἑαυτούς 1 Pt 4:8).—DELG s.v. ἄλλος.

William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 46.
ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;
http://jonathanrobie.biblicalhumanities.org/
Jonathan Robie
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Re: ἀλλήλους

Post by Jonathan Robie »

Stirling Bartholomew wrote: October 26th, 2022, 4:50 pm Suggest reading Reinier de Blois on contextual semantic domains. Anything you can find. For example:

Lexicography and Cognitive Linguistics: Hebrew Metaphors from a Cognitive Perspective

Reinier de Blois, January 2004
Excellent suggestion. Reinier's Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew is here:

https://semanticdictionary.org

The definitions show both the core meaning and its meaning in certain contextual domains. For instance, consider the word חֹשֶׁךְ. You can see that the core meaning is simple and direct, but it takes on a rich variety of meanings in specific contexts.
Screenshot 2022-10-30 192315.png
Screenshot 2022-10-30 192315.png (535.94 KiB) Viewed 3010 times
I am not aware of a lexicon organized this way for Greek. Is there one? Louw & Nida does not have contextual domains.
ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;
http://jonathanrobie.biblicalhumanities.org/
mikeatnip
Posts: 77
Joined: May 6th, 2020, 12:07 pm

Re: ἀλλήλους

Post by mikeatnip »

I think I see where I goofed here. I was looking at Brill's entry for ἀλλότριος instead of ἀλλήλων.
Thank you for the responses.
Mike Atnip
May I not debate presumptuously; may I not be silent impudently. May I learn beneficial speech; may I acquire discerning silence. -Ephrem the Syrian
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