τούτοις in Jud 1:7

Biblical Greek morphology and syntax, aspect, linguistics, discourse analysis, and related topics
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Girgis Boshra
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Joined: January 25th, 2012, 3:40 pm

τούτοις in Jud 1:7

Post by Girgis Boshra »

6 ἀγγέλους τε τοὺς μὴ τηρήσαντας τὴν ἑαυτῶν ἀρχὴν ἀλλὰ ἀπολιπόντας τὸ ἴδιον οἰκητήριον εἰς κρίσιν μεγάλης ἡμέρας δεσμοῖς ἀϊδίοις ὑπὸ ζόφον τετήρηκεν,
7 ὡς Σόδομα καὶ Γόμορρα καὶ αἱ περὶ αὐτὰς πόλεις τὸν ὅμοιον τρόπον τούτοις ἐκπορνεύσασαι καὶ ἀπελθοῦσαι ὀπίσω σαρκὸς ἑτέρας, πρόκεινται δεῖγμα πυρὸς αἰωνίου δίκην ὑπέχουσαι. (Jud 1:6-7) the demonstrative pronoun (τούτοις) refers to (ἀγγέλους) or (Σόδομα καὶ Γόμορρα) and why?
cwconrad
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Re: τούτοις in Jud 1:7

Post by cwconrad »

Girgis Boshra wrote:6 ἀγγέλους τε τοὺς μὴ τηρήσαντας τὴν ἑαυτῶν ἀρχὴν ἀλλὰ ἀπολιπόντας τὸ ἴδιον οἰκητήριον εἰς κρίσιν μεγάλης ἡμέρας δεσμοῖς ἀϊδίοις ὑπὸ ζόφον τετήρηκεν,
7 ὡς Σόδομα καὶ Γόμορρα καὶ αἱ περὶ αὐτὰς πόλεις τὸν ὅμοιον τρόπον τούτοις ἐκπορνεύσασαι καὶ ἀπελθοῦσαι ὀπίσω σαρκὸς ἑτέρας, πρόκεινται δεῖγμα πυρὸς αἰωνίου δίκην ὑπέχουσαι. (Jud 1:6-7) the demonstrative pronoun (τούτοις) refers to (ἀγγέλους) or (Σόδομα καὶ Γόμορρα) and why?
τούτοις must, I think, refer to the angels. The participles ἐκπορνεύσασαι and ἀπελθοῦσαι are feminine, construing with Σόδομα καὶ Γόμορρα καὶ αἱ περὶ αὐτὰς πόλεις. As τούτοις is masculine it must refer back to the ἁγγελοι of the preceding verse. It would be odd, wouldn't it, if Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors should be compared to themselves? Admittedly, however, the usage of ὡς introducing verse 7 seems to skew the logic of the sequence of these two verses. Presumably the assignment of the fallen angels to their place antedates the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, but the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah is the exemplum with which the assignment of the angels is compared.It does seem that ὡς gets used (and abused) in much the same manner as "like" in contemporary American English. Here it almost seems to indicate a curious case of post hoc ergo propter hoc: the angels took their cue from Sodom and Gomorrah and behaved stupidly, even if they did so before Sodom and Gomorrah did it. I don't think that's what the author intended, but there's an awkwardness here in the way ὡς is used.
οὔτοι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν,
ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητέοντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον. (Xenophanes, Fragment 16)

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
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