sigatwsan

From: Bruce Tetley (b.tetley@auckland.ac.nz)
Date: Mon Jan 26 1998 - 20:24:49 EST


   I have been intrigued in 1 Cor 14 that a person giving a prophecy
is made to `stop' and `be silent', usually with the connotation that
this person's `prophecy' is prematurely terminated, but that this is
somehow an expression of `order' in vs.33. It would seem to me that
the person who `receives' the new prophecy and must force the initial
speaker to stop is the person who needs the lesson in orderly
conduct, not the original speaker. To whom is Paul's word that the
spirit of a prophet is subject to the prophet, vs 32? Is it to the
prophet who has just received a message and must force the first to
stop or to the one already speaking? I would suggest the former.
Hence my question. What is the frame of reference for SIGATWSAN. As
third person, active, imperative, must we see this as a command for
the original speaker, or to the congregation (in which new prophets
are dying to speak)? It also brings into question the meaning of
SIGATW, which usually translated means to `be silent' . A nuance of
this which I might suggest is ` to become quiet', on which case the
onus is on the congregation (and other `prophets') to allow the
first speaker to cease his speaking, in other words to finish. I
cannot prove it at this instant, but other uses of SIG... in the NT
may suggest that `becoming quiet' in the sense of `completing the
message' could be an option. Any comments.

Bruce Tetley



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:39:01 EDT