ouv ga.r e;krina, ti eivde,nai evn u`mi/n eiv mh. VIhsou/n Cristo.n kai. tou/ton evstaurwme,nonÅ
(1 Corinthians 2:2)
- if you can't see the Greek, download the font by clicking on the big red oval on my side-bar!
Canon Professor Anthony Thiselton, in his commentary on 1 Corinthians, translates this as ‘For I did not resolve to know anything to speak among you except Jesus Christ, and Christ crucified’ (204), and I’d be interested to hear if anyone else has a problem with this.
He reads the ouv as related to e;krina not i) eivde,nai (not to know cf. KJV, NJB) and ii) ti (to know nothing cf. NRSV, NIV)
Also, kai. tou/ton is not, he maintains, captured by the usual personal pronoun (‘Jesus Christ and him crucified’).
Perhaps most unusual of all, he argues that the eivde,nai (‘to know’) is problematic. He would have expected ‘I did not reach a decision to speak anything …’, and so he smuggles this into his translation on the basis that Paul, with the use of this infinitive, ‘refers to his whole mind-set and stance’ (213)
But this seems to me to be an uncomfortable translation. First, while the ouv usually doesn’t negate an infinitive, nor anything other than the word it precedes, there are some examples (Moule), and the majority reading that negates either eivde,nai or ti is the most natural.
More problematic, however, is the ‘to know anything to speak’ gloss. My understanding of the letter is that it involves, at a basic level and in almost every chapter, believers in their relation to the risen Lord - what it looks like and how it is experienced. I would therefore be tempted to understand the use of the verb oi=da in a relational sense, which is one possibility given in BDAG: be intimately acquainted with or stand in a close relation to.
What do you think? Do you side with:
A) Mr. Chris Fresh post-graduate Tilling with an exegetical agenda M.Th. Hons,
Or
B) Canon Professor Anthony Thiselton B.D., M.Th., Ph.D., D.D., D.D, Research Professor in Christian Theology, and Emeritus Professor of Christian Theology in the University of Nottingham, and author of numerous outstanding books that have propelled him to world-wide recognition
Or
C) Go along, unquestioningly, with the KJV (see previous post)
?
Let the jury cast their votes … (but please note that A is the best choice, especially as I'll burst into tears if you choose something else)
2 comments:
Chris, excuse me for my computer ignorance, but I have tried to download and save your Greek and Hebrew files that you provide in your sidebar, but each time it does not work.
Do I save them yto my desktop? or to one of my word processing programs? Unsure how to get this to work. I use Word and Word Perfect, and also have windows XP the home version.
Hi TB,
Yea, you need to copy the fonts into the system font file, which can be found in the 'Start' (bottom left of the screen) > Systemsteuerung ('System settings' in English??). Then a folder will open up with things like: Folder Options, Software (install and uninstall possibilities), Hardware etc. 'Fonts' is another folder. Copy the downloaded fonts into this, and immediately it'll work. Any problems, then drop me a note. Perhaps I could guide you through it if you have AOL or MSN or something like that. My AOL name is in my profile.
All the best,
Chris
Post a Comment