Re: 2 Thess 1:9, APO

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Fri Dec 25 1998 - 23:23:32 EST


At 12:30 AM +0200 12/26/98, Arto Hoikkala wrote:
>Dear B-GREEKers,
>
>While studying the word DIKH I started to wonder APO preposition in
>2 Thess 1:9. Greek text reads
>
>hOITINES DIKHN TISOUSIN OLEQRON AIWNION APO PROSWPOU TOU KURIOU
>KAI APO THS DOCHS THS ISXUOS AUTOU
>
>Finnish translations (very much like RSV and NIV) interpret APO as
>"away from". So the punishment is defined as 1) eternal
>destruction/death *and* separation from the presence of the Lord
>or as 2) eternal destruction/death *which is* separation from the
>presence of the Lord. However, after reading the context and some
>related verses in the OT (Isa 2:10,19,21) I started to wonder
>whether APO actually communicates the presence of the Lord as the
>*cause* of eternal destruction/death. This interpretation defines
>punishment as 3) eternal destruction/death *by* the presence of
>the Lord and *by* the glory of his might (something like deaths
>of Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu).
>
>We may have different interpretations of the meaning of OLEQRON
>AIWNION, but leaving those aside is this third interpretation
>grammatically possible? What do you think about it otherwise?

Without being dogmatic about it, I have to say that it seems strange to me
to think in terms of PROSWPON TOU KURIOU AND hH DOXA THS ISCUOS AUTOU as
agents of OLEQROS--the more so in that hUPO is more normal for a personal
agent, or an instrumental dative for an impersonal means. More natural, in
my view is to understand APO with these genitives in an ablatival function:
"who will pay everlasting ruin away from the presence of the Lord and away
from his glorious might" or the like. Moreover, the relative pronoun
hOITINES must refer back to TOIS MH EIDOSIN QEON KAI TOIS MH hUPAKOUOUSIN
TWi EUAGGELIWi TOU KURIOU hHMWN IHSOU--i.e., we have an active
construction, so for that reason also APO with these genitives hardly seems
likely as introducing an agent construction or even a source. Perhaps that
argument can be made, but it seems unnatural to me.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad@yancey.main.nc.us
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/

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