[b-greek] Re: Philippians 1:9-10

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Wed Sep 13 2000 - 06:42:38 EDT


At 7:25 PM -0400 9/12/00, Mike Sangrey wrote:
>KAI TOUTO PROSEUCOMAI,
>hINA
> hH AGAPH hUMWN ETI MALLON KAI MALLON
> PERISSEUHi EN EPIGNWSEI KAI PASHi AISQHSEI,
> EIS TO DOKIMAZEIN hUMAS TA DIAFERONTA
>
>Is this saying that love promotes sound and practical scholarship?

I've seen Mark Wilson's response to this and agree essentially with what he
says, but my own initial reaction was that this suggestion of Mike's was
composed with tongue in cheek. Was I mistaken?

I think the real focus in this passage is rather upon growth of moral
discernment. I had occasion recently in connection with another thread to
comment on the relationship between verse 6 and verse 9 thus:

At 5:05 PM -0500 9/4/00, Carl W. Conrad wrote:
>I would assume that the idea so neatly encapsulated in verse 6 is given a
>more vivid imaginative rendering in vss. 9-11 (KAI TOUTO PROSEUCOMAI, hINA
>hH AGAPH hUMWN ETI MALLON KAI MALLON PERISSEUHi EN EPIGNWSEI KAI PASHi
>AISQHSEI EIS TO DOKOMAZEIN hUMAS TA DIAFERONTA, hINA HTE EILIKRINEIS KAI
>APROSKOPOI EIS hHMERAN CRISTOU, PEPLHROMENOI KARPON DIKAIOSUNHS TON DIA
>IHSOU CRISTOU EIS DOXAN KAI EPAINON QEOU. There the perspective is upon the
>end product of the process referred to as the ever-expanding (by leaps and
>bounds) love, the end-product being a harvest of fully ripened grain or of
>fruits at harvest season (depending on which way you choose to visualize
>PEPLHRWMENOI KARPON).

I think then that the focus of verse 9 is actually progress toward the full
maturation of that DIKAIOSUNH the potential for which has already been the
basis for one's acceptance by and obedience to God in Christ, and moreover
that the focus of this process of maturation is the development of insight
and discernment in ever greater measure of how AGAPH is to be operative in
particular confrontations with others such as ones wherein a novice
intending to do "the loving thing" may actually do harm to the other
person(s) s/he is confronting. So I think that the moral progress
envisioned here and given expression in these seemingly intellectual words
EPIGNWSEI, AISQHSEI and DOKIMAZEIN TA DIAFERONTA is actually more a matter
of developing sophisticated discernment as to how God's will for the
well-being of the person(s) one is dealing with in each particular
situation is to be promoted by one's own behavior in that situation. I
think it is also intimately bound up with the distinction between the
"letter of the Law" and the "spirit of the Law." Finally, DOKIMAZEIN TA
DIAFERONTA really deserves a discussion in its own right and I think we
have had threads on that before: I think this is a TOPOS in Hellenistic
moral philosophy, and I think that in this instance the meaning of the
infinitive phrase is something like, "put to the proof one's understanding
of what is really important (as opposed to what is only of secondary or
tertiary importance)."

--

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
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/

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