From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Sun Oct 15 1995 - 16:29:58 EDT
At 2:21 PM 10/15/95, Paul Watkins wrote:
>I have three questions which I would greatly appreciate some input on:
>
>1. What does "eikh episteusate" mean in 1 Cor. 15:2?
Roughly, "You believed BY CONJECTURE" or" ... RANDOMLY" or " ... FOR NO
GOOD REASON."
>2. What is the difference between the filling, "pimplemi" of the Spirit
>and the fulness "plerow" of the Spirit? Is there a difference?
I don't really think there's much, if any, difference. They are alternative
verb formations from the root PLH, which means "fill."
>3. What is the difference between "gnwsis" and "epignwsis"? Are they different
>types of knowledge or is the latter simply a richer form of the former?
This is going to depend on the context in which the words are being used.
EPIGNWSIS may mean "recognition," "acknowledgement," "familiarity," or
"knowledge." GNWSIS may mean "knowledge," but in 1 Cor it tends to have the
sense "mystical knowledge" of a sort that seems to depend upon an intimate
communion between believer and God (and Paul seems to imply that it
isolates one believer from others, whereas Paul seems normally to view a
believer's relationship to God through Christ not as strictly
private/personal but as also having a corporate dimension bonding the
believer with other believers. In 1 Cor GNWSIS is often set off
pejoratively in antithesis to AGAPH. I think GNWSIS is also negative in 1
Cor 13, but there may be some places where it does not have this mystical
and negative connotation. Certainly it could be used in as many different
ways as the verb GINWSKW, and it would be worth your while to study these
words in an unabridged lexicon of classical Greek as well as in BAGD.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, USA 63130
(314) 935-4018
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwc@oui.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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