[b-greek] Re: AFIHMI/AFAIREW (was AFIHMI and APAIRW)

From: Paul O. Wendland (wendlanp@wls.wels.net)
Date: Thu Feb 14 2002 - 10:13:30 EST


Carl W. Conrad wrote:

> The simple answer is, NO, these are not really synonyms; AFAIREW means
> "remove" (physically), while AFIHMI (or AFIW in it later omega-verb form)
> means "let go" or "dismiss."

I would agree that there are no exact synomyms, and that despite overlap in
semantic domains we must attend to those differences, especially as the
context and the collocates of the word lead us to do so.

> Nor, I think, would one really want to talk about BLOOD having
> the power to
> forgive;

Perhaps, but perhaps the above statement is too general. Witness:

Eph 1:7 EN hWi ECOMEN THN APOLUTRWSIN DIA TOU AIMATOS AUTOU, THN AFESIN TWN
PARAPTWMATWN


>forgiveness is something that depends upon a person's will or
> God's will; REMOVAL might be a matter of the instrument.

However in this context the issue is not: person vs. instrument. Does not,
in fact, an instrument have to be wielded by someone? Doesn't it express
the personal will of the wielder? Is it not rather the *inadequacy* of the
instrument which is in the foreground here, that is: not a question of
blood/death per se being able/unable to effect such a removal, but a
question of *what kind of* blood/death can effect such a removal
permanently. The killing of beasts could not. But the blood/death of the
one spoken of in the following verse could.

9.12 OUDE DI' AIMATOS TRAGWN KAI MOSCWN DIA DE TOU IDIOU hAIMATOS EISHLQEN
EFAPAX EIS TA hAGIA AIWNIAN LUTRWSIN EURAMENOS.

So I guess in this case I don't quite see the viability of drawing too sharp
a distinction between the force of AFIHMI and AFAIREW. I also don't really
understand what distinction is being drawn between physical removal
(=AFAIREW) and AFIHMI. After all, weren't missles "physically" let
go/launched and wasn't this thought expressed by AFIHMI? I'm thinking in
other words, that in some contexts AFIHMI often denotes a physical
dislocation. What makes it something "spiritual" is its collocation with an
abstraction like "sins." So also with AFAIREW: how can someone physically
remove an abstraction like sins, or guilt? Doesn't it have to be read in a
"spiritual" sense?

In this passage, then, I'd just read AFAIREW to mean something like
"nullification" and while it doesn't mean exactly the same as forgiveness,
when one moves up the ladder of generalization, it comes out to the same
basic place.

Paul O. Wendland
wendlanp@wls.wels.net


---
B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
You are currently subscribed to b-greek as: [jwrobie@mindspring.com]
To unsubscribe, forward this message to leave-b-greek-327Q@franklin.oit.unc.edu
To subscribe, send a message to subscribe-b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu




This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:37:18 EDT