At 8:18 AM -0600 3/12/98, clayton stirling bartholomew wrote:
>> On Thu, 12 Mar 1998, Randall M. Tidmore wrote:
>>
>> The KJV translates "worship" only here.
>> > Newer translations translate "served."
>> >
>> > Isn't there a more to this than that? It seems to me that Paul,
having
>> > become very disgusted with the idolatry in Athens, makes a
tremendous point.
>> > The true God, is not healed (perhaps "repaired") by the hands of
men. Paul
>> > had seen their idols, as well as their temples. I wonder if he had
not seen
>> > someone having to repair or do some kind of maintenance on an
idol. Whatever
>> > the case may have been, I think the pointed contrast between God
and idols
>> > is missed by "worship" or "served."
>
>
>Randall,
>
>Welcome to b-greek. A good place to bounce ideas.
>
>Carl wrote:
>>>>>
>It seems to me that you are taking what is really a SECONDARY sense of
the
>verb QERAPEUW and mis-applying it in this text
>>>>>
>
>I would have to agree with Carl here about 99%. However, I did notice
that the
>article on QERAPEUW in EDNT (vol. 2, p144) devotes about 90% of it's
space to
>"healing" with only a very small note on "serving." The only NT
reference they
>give for "serving" is Acts 17:25. On the other hand, BAGD (358.1)
gives "serve
>a divinity" as a primary sense for this word, with a long list of
>pre-christian authors (Hesoid, Herodoitus, . . .). H.A.W Meyer
(4.333)
>renders this "served by offerings."
>
>So I would like to raise the question, if "service to a god" was the
primary
>meaning in the pre-christian era, is it still the primary meaning in
the NT?
>Has the locus of usage shifted in the NT for this word?
>
>My conclusion concerning Acts 17:25 would be that "service to a deity"
is the
>most reasonably rendering in this context, even if that meaning is not
the
>most statistically common in the NT. When evaluating the semantic
value of a
>word in the NT one must not pay too much attention to the statistical
use in
>the NT, because the NT cannon is a small collection of writings. The
lexical
>semantic database for NT needs to include all the extant Koine sources
as well
>as the classical authors. Clearly the Koine sources should get more
"weight"
>than the older works, but the older works still need to be weighed.
Here's Louw and Nida:
Geneva23.139
QERAPEUWGenevaa
;
QERAPEIAGenevaa
Helena, a§
Genevaf:Geneva
to cause someone to recover health, often with the implication of
having taken care of such a person - 'to heal, to cure, to take care
of, healing.'
35.19 QERAPEUW
HelenawGenevab
;
hUPHERETEWGenevaa
;
DIAKONEWGenevaa
; DIAKONIA
Genevaa
Helena,
Genevaf:Geneva
to render assistance or help by performing certain duties, often of a
humble or menial nature - 'to serve, to render service, to help,
service, help.'
The fact is that Clay has done very well here:
QERAPEUW is much common in the NT in the sense of "heal," "render
medical attention to," even if its older and more primary sense, the
one actually seen in Acts 17:25 is "attend upon deity."
In fact this is a grand word with a grand history. Homer's warriors are
entitled QERAPONTES ARHOS, "servants of Ares," and Archilochus, the
first Greek poet to sing in his own voice about his personal existence
sang,
EIMI D'EGW MOUSWN QERAPWN KAI ENUALIOIO ANAKTOS,
"I am the servant of the Muses Lord Enyalios [= Ares}"--he was a
vagabond mercenary soldier poet. So there's a link to the Hebraic
notion of the EBED YHWH and even the Islamic notion of ABDUL, the
'servant of God.'
Socrates spoke of the most important concern of every human being as
QERAPEIA THS YUCHS, and although that was translated into Latin as CURA
ANIMAE, which eventually led to the ecclesiastical office of the
"curate," the Socratic sense was "tendance," not "healing" but
"tendance" hOPWS hWS BELTISTH Hi--so that one's YUCH may be "the best
that it can be."
It's true that the secondary meaning came to be the more common one,
that medical tendance was the primary sort of tendance associated with
QERAPEIA. It's much as competent verse composition came to be
associated with POIHTHS as the primary association, although that word
originally meant "creator" in every sense, even as Genesis in the LXX
begins with EN ARCHi EPOIHSEN ...
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/