How do I work out the meaning of a Greek text? How can I best understand the forms and vocabulary in this particular text?
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Where can I find a good discussion of the plausible meanings of τηρήσω ἐκ in this verse? The only other place I see τηρεῖν+ἐκ in the Greek New Testament or LXX is in John 17:15:
Where can I find a good discussion of the plausible meanings of τηρήσω ἐκ in this verse? The only other place I see τηρεῖν+ἐκ in the Greek New Testament or LXX is in John 17:15:
This is not directly an answer to your question, Jonathan, -- and it may not be very helpful -- but it's always seemed to me that τηρεῖν has at least two overlapping senses in Biblical Greek, one being "keep strictly in view, observe and practice unfailingly" -- as a commandment, and another more like the regularly Greek verb φυλάσσειν, "preserve, protect, guard, keep from harm". What's the Hebrew verb represented by τηρεῖν in the LXX? Is it nitsar?
οὔτοι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν,
ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητέοντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον. (Xenophanes, Fragment 16)
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
cwconrad wrote:This is not directly an answer to your question, Jonathan, -- and it may not be very helpful -- but it's always seemed to me that τηρεῖν has at least two overlapping senses in Biblical Greek, one being "keep strictly in view, observe and practice unfailingly" -- as a commandment, and another more like the regularly Greek verb φυλάσσειν, "preserve, protect, guard, keep from harm". What's the Hebrew verb represented by τηρεῖν in the LXX? Is it nitsar?
According to Abbott-Smith, it translates שָׁמַר (šāmar), נָצַר (nāṣar), etc. I have not checked Hatch & Redpath.
Someone claimed that with ἐκ, this verb has the sense of "removing from". It does not seem to have that sense in the two places I can find this combination. BDAG suggests that it can mean to keep someone or something away from someone, that makes more sense to me.
Also R. H. Mounce refers to an article by Schuyler Brown, '"The Hour of Trial" (Rev 3:10)' Journal of Biblical Literature Vol. 85, No. 3 (Sep., 1966), pp. 308-314. See p. 310 in that article.
Wonder whether it's just a slight variation of τηρεῖν+ἀπό as seen in Prov 7:5 LXX.
Interestingly, τηρεῖν appears the most in Prov LXX (12x out of 38), three times with regards to τηρεῖ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ψυχήν (13:3, 16:17, 19:13). This seems to me to be the closest in meaning to Rev 3:10, in the sense of protecting/guarding.
Surprisingly, the sense of "observe so as to practice" for τηρεῖν in the LXX is only seen in two verses from what I can gather (Sirach 29:1, Tobit 14:9), and even these two the understanding "protect" could be understood. Prov 3:1 I see more as meaning "protect" rather than "observe".
Compare this to the NT, where one usually finds "observe so as to practice" as the main meaning, with "protecting" being the secondary.
Unless, of course, those verses commonly seen as "observing" should be more understood as "protecting" in sync with the LXX meaning?
To follow on from Jonathan's question, anyone done a study on the usage of τηρεῖν in the LXX/NT, and in Greek literature during the time between the two? Would be interesting to see when the idea of "observing" came to be at the forefront over the idea of "protecting/guarding".
Is it something that φυλασσω is never found in Revelation, and φυλακη is only used in a completely 'negative' sense? It means either "prison" (2:10, 20:7) or "refuge/haunt" (18:2).
τηρεω is a "positive" word, and as such I believe it is more or less being used in the sense usually occupied by φυλασσω meaning "to guard, protect".