Re: hOYTOS derogatory?

From: Randy Leedy (RLEEDY@bju.edu)
Date: Thu Dec 18 1997 - 15:49:39 EST


Edgar M. Krentz wrote

>>>A brief comment on your paragraph below. I recall Saul Levin
commenting that hOUTOS often, in dialogue, had a negative
connotation: "This here [fellow]" and in drama may even have been
equivalent to a stage direction: gesture toward the person indicated.
The term does not have to be derogatory, but can in context. So you
might well translate "This here authority of yours"--said with a
particular inflection. It pays to think orally when reading some
texts.
<<<

[my original paragraph snipped]

A bit more work on this turns up a number of good exx. cited in
Robertson 704, confirming Edgar's note. Other sources citing a
contemptuous use of hOUTOS are BAGD, BDF 290.6, Louw & Nida 92.29,
and Turner ("Syntax") 44. Wallace lacks any mention of it as far as I
can tell.

Sources that mention this use do not mention I Cor. 8:9, and all the
references they do list use the expression to show contempt
specifically for a PERSON PRESENT AT THE TIME OF SPEAKING. The
situation in I Corinthians is different, but if we understand that
Paul is responding to a letter from the Corinthians claiming
"authority" to partake of the idol feasts, it does not seem too great
a leap in usage for Paul to say "this authority of yours" somewhat
contemptuously. Anyone care to vote for or against my reasoning here?

****************************
In Love to God and Neighbor,
Randy Leedy
Bob Jones University
Greenville, SC
RLeedy@bju.edu
****************************



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