Mounce's The Difference between "and" and "or" (1 Tim 2:9)

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D Ryan Lowe
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Joined: June 25th, 2012, 1:45 am

Mounce's The Difference between "and" and "or" (1 Tim 2:9)

Post by D Ryan Lowe »

In Bill Mounce's blog, he says that the distinction of και and η shows up how to group the list of prohibitions in 1 Tim 2:9.
μὴ ἐν πλέγμασιν καὶ χρυσῷ ἢ μαργαρίταις ἢ ἱματισμῷ πολυτελεῖ
http://www.teknia.com/blog/7374

He groups it into two prohibitions:
1. ἐν πλέγμασιν καὶ χρυσῷ ἢ μαργαρίταις
2. ἢ ἱματισμῷ πολυτελεῖ

Mounce groups braided hair with gold using the και, but given that Mounce separates fancy clothing because of the η, is there any reason to necessarily group "pearls" with braided hair since it also has η?
Stephen Carlson
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Re: Mounce's The Difference between "and" and "or" (1 Tim 2:

Post by Stephen Carlson »

I have no idea why he groups pearls with the gold. Taking his point about ἤ seriously would suggest three groups, not two. Does anyone know if pearls regularly adorned hair or were worn separately?
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
Melbourne, Australia
D Ryan Lowe
Posts: 31
Joined: June 25th, 2012, 1:45 am

Re: Mounce's The Difference between "and" and "or" (1 Tim 2:

Post by D Ryan Lowe »

Well, in a previous post Mounce writes this:
All you have to do is look at some ancient statues of wealthy women. Their hair is braided, pulled tightly against their head, and then they put jewels (gold and pearls) into their hair, thus enforcing a social pecking order and class system that was woefully inappropriate for the church as a community of loving brothers and sisters.
http://www.teknia.com/blog/translation- ... m-1-tim-29

So I am guessing that Mounce is grouping pearls with braided hair based on this background information. I don't think you can reach that conclusion based purely on the grammar. I don't know if women wore pearls elsewhere.

Other commentators:
πλέγμα, ‘anything that is twisted’, can be used of embroidery (Philo, Somn. 1:204, 206) or, as here, of various types of plaited hairstyle. (Hurley*, 198f. The word is not found in the LXX Isa 28:5 Aq, Theod.; Josephus, Ant. 2:220.) These were often highly elaborate, incorporating jewelry. They were the marks of both wealth and beauty and were often criticised. (Juvenal, Sat. 6:492; Petronius, Sat. 67; cf. Balsdon, J. P. V. D., Roman Women (Westport: Bodley Head, 1962), 252–8; Spicq, 377.) Similar comments are made on ἐμπλοκή in 1 Pet 3:3. χρυσίον, ‘gold’ refers to items of jewelry or ornaments, also typically and critically associated with wealthy women. (1 Pet 3:3; Rev 17:4; 18:16; Demosthenes 27:10, 13; Plutarch, Tim. 15:6.) μαργαρίτη, ‘pearl’, is similarly a female decoration. (Rev 17:4; 18:12, 16; see also Mt 7:6; 13:45f; Rev 21:21a, 21b; Petronius, Sat. 67; Spicq 377.)
I. Howard Marshall and Philip H. Towner, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Pastoral Epistles, International Critical Commentary (London: T&T Clark International, 2004), 450.

Paul perhaps referred to a style in which “women … wore their hair in enormously elaborate arrangements with braids and curls interwoven or piled high like towers and decorated with gems and/or gold and/or pearls.” (J. B. Hurley, Man and Woman in Biblical Perspective (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1981), 199.)
Thomas D. Lea and Hayne P. Griffin, 1, 2 Timothy, Titus, vol. 34, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 96.

Interestingly, the Majority texts have η for και.
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