From: Ben Crick (ben.crick@argonet.co.uk)
Date: Wed Jul 01 1998 - 01:11:14 EDT
On Tue 30 Jun 98 (15:08:56), web3943@charweb.org wrote:
> Yes, I know it is a metaphor. I was wondering about the 'femaleness' of
> the terms Paul uses as compared with 'father' in (1 Cor 4:15 KJV)
> For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not
> many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.
>
> That is, I am trying to see that Paul uses male and female to illustrate
> his relationship (instructor).
>
> If you have any additional verses that illustrate this, I'd love to see
> them and to understand the Greek terms that he used.
Dear Thomas,
Paul uses many metaphors; here are two more, uncompromisingly male:
PAIDAGWGOS and PATHR. Actually, PAIDAGWGOS is not an instructor
(DIDASKALOS), but a child-minder, often a slave, whose duty it was to take
the children safely to school and back. Plato wrote: PAIDAGWGOS DOULOS WN,
AGWN DHPOU EIS DIDASKALON (LUSIS, p 208). A son-of-the-house would have had
many child-minders during his school career. MURIOS is the largest cardinal
number in Greek (10,000), but here it is used in a general sense as
"innumerable" or "countless". We might say "umpteen" or "numberless".
But the word also means a Tutor or a Guardian. The most famous such was
Aristotle, who became the future Alexander the Great's PAIDAGWGOS from
343 BC, when the boy was 13 to 18. Paul may have had this in mind when he
wrote of "the Law" being "our PAIDAGWGOS to bring us to Christ, that we
might be justified by faith. But after faith is come, we are no longer
under a PAIDAGWGOS. For ye are all children of God by faith in Christ
Jesus" (Galatians 3:24-26; compare Galatians 4:1-7).
Gentile converts would not have had the Law as the Jews had had; they would
have had "gods many and lords many" (1 Corinthians 8:5) as their PAIDAGWGOI,
perhaps. Be that as it may, they only had one PATHR who had "sired" them,
so to speak, in bringing them to new birth in Christ (if this is not too
far-fetched).
Paul had a nephew (Acts 32:16), but he had no sons. Naturally he regarded
his special protˇgˇs as his "sons": e.g. Timothy (1 Cor 4:17); Onesimus
(Philemon 10). These were very "special" to Paul; no doubt he considered
some of the Corinthians (Crispus; Gaius; Stephanus: 1 Cor 1:14-16) as also
his "sons in Christ" and himself their "father in Christ". Paul bases his
appeal to the erring Corinthians on this special relationship as "honorary
father" in bringing them to new birth in Christ. They didn't have "many
fathers" OU POLLOUS PATERAS: maybe some owed their conversion to Paul;
some to Apollos; some to Peter (Cephas) (1 Cor 1:12). But "One" was their
Father in Heaven; the LORD God Himself.
Does this help at all?
Standard Disclaimer (*IMHO*) applies!
ERRWSQE
Ben
-- Revd Ben Crick, BA CF <ben.crick@argonet.co.uk> 232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK) http://www.cnetwork.co.uk/crick.htm--- b-greek home page: http://sunsite.unc.edu/bgreek To post a message to the list, mailto:b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu To subscribe, mailto:subscribe-b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu To unsubscribe, mailto:unsubscribe-b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu?subject=[cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu]
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