Irenaeus

From: Michael Holmes (holmic@bethel.edu)
Date: Thu Feb 15 1996 - 12:47:12 EST


Yesterday I was messing around with Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 1.8.1 [= ref in
AnteNicene Fathers; TLG ref = 1.1.15], and am curious to see what you might
make of a few phrases. To phrase things in terms of Carl Conrad's excellent
recent comments, I think (hope?)I get the gist of the Greek, but coming up
with a satisfactory ET is another matter.

"They attempt to adapt [PROSARMOZEIN] things (either parables of the Lord,
or sayings of the prophets, or words of the apostles) to their own sayings,
in order that their scheme might not seem to be lacking in support: THN MEN
TACIN KAI TON hEIRMON TWN GRAFWN hUPERBAINONTES, KAI, hOSON EF' hEAUTOIS,
LUONTES TA MELH THS ALHQEIAS. METAFEROUSI DE KAI METAPLATTOUSI, KAI ALLO EC
ALLOU POIOUNTES ECAPATWSI POLLOUS THi TWN EFARMOZOMENWN KURIAKWN LOGIWN
KAKOSUNQETWi SOFIAi. ... [several lines of text] ... EPEITA RhHMATA KAI
LECEIS KAI PARABOLAS hOQEN KAI POQEN APOSPWNTES, EFARMOZEIN BOULONTAI TOIS
MUQOIS AUTWN (v.l., hEAUTWN) TA LOGIA TOU QEOU.

Key phrases I'm interested in (which I'll number for ease of reference):
1) how much difference in meaning is there between TACIN ("order") and
hEIRMON ("sequence"? "connection"?)

2)LUONTES TA MELH THS ALHQEIAS: "destroying the integrity of the truth"?

3)METAFEROUSI DE KAI METAPLATTOUSI: roughly "they change and they
counterfeit;" would it be appropriate to take METAFEROUSI as "interpret
metaphorically" in this context?

4)THi TWN EFARMOZOMENWN KURIAKWN LOGIWN KAKOSUNQETWi SOFIAi: KAKOSUNQETWi,
acc. to LSJ (p. 863), is a rhetorical term, "ill-composed," "ill put
together," neither of which seems to fit too well as a modifier of SOFIAi,
which in this context =? For the phrase, perhaps something like "their
poorly-organized understanding of the adapted sayings of the Lord"?

5)hOQEN KAI POQEN a) what does the combo mean; I didn't notice an example
of the combo in LSJ, which makes them sound like synonyms; b) does the combo
modify what precedes or follows it? (APOSPAW here = "take out of context"?)

Thanks,
Mike Holmes



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