1Thessalonian Hapaxes

robinriley
Posts: 28
Joined: Tue May 31, 2016 1:05 am

1Thessalonian Hapaxes

Post by robinriley » Thu Jun 02, 2016 3:46 pm

Hello All ... I'm new to this Forum, and am looking forward to a few good scriptural discussions.
I'm not very good at argument, nor do I much care to engage in such, but I do enjoy a good
back and forth discussion, especially when it involves how a Pauline verse should be read.

My Greek is limited ... self taught, to some extext, but I have, over the past few years managed
to put together my own reading of Paul's 13 epistles, directly from the Greek, found in the "Byzantine
Textform 2005," by Maurice Robinson and William Pierpont ... Granted, my English compilations may
not pass muster with some of those more formally educated in the subject, but they are not all that bad ...
and I'm always working at improving them as time goes by ... hence, my looking forward to a few good
discussions.

Again, it's the specific words of Paul, which I'm most interested in ... theology and doctrine are matters
that I do my best to not talk about, much ... that is, I know that Christ is my Lord and Savior, and that
faith and God's grace are pure gifts, not something that I've earned in any manner; I know that Christ died
on the cross for all of mankinds sins, so I simply find it most logical to to comprehand this as being all inclusive ...
As for the "nature" of God ... I'm a rather simple man, I know that God is our Father, and that Jesus is our
Lord, and I understand that there is a devine spirit involved in all of this, one that dwells within each believer ...
beyond that, I'm not willing or able to conjecture any further ... figure that when God, Himself wants me to
better understand the "nature" of such things, He will be the One to clue me in on all that ... hence, let's
dismiss with any discussions concerning trinity, pre-existenace, and the such; thank you.

But back to Pauline scripture ... I'm currently reviewing my efforts at compiling 1Thessaloinians, and am
very interested in it's 17 hapaxes (hapax legomenons), because, being unique, within the NT, there's not much
data at hand for us to best figure out how Paul actually intended for us to comprehend his use of these particular
words ... we can alway use outside sources, but I prefer to keep things as Pauline as possible, which sort of limites
us to only use the surrounding context of the verses where these hapaxes are found ... or not found, in some cases where
the source texts involve variants ... which brings me to a possible 18th hapax in 1Thes 5:27, and thus begins ... hopefully,
our first give and take, back and forth good discussion:

I like my scriptures as literal as possible ... that's, of course, why I've compiled my own readings directly from the Greek;
and I preferr the Byzantine over the Alexandrian (for good reasons, that we might have another topic thread about, later),
but rather than just jump right into a reading by robin, let's go with a more acceptable reading by Young (Young's Literal):

"I charge you [by] the Lord, that the letter be read to all the holy brethren" (5:27)
Ὁρκίζω ὑμᾶς τὸν κύριον, ἀναγνωσθῆναι τὴν ἐπιστολὴν πᾶσιν τοῖς ἁγίοις ἀδελφοῖς.

There are, actually, two text variants in this verse, so I'll just touch on the second, which isn't germain to the hapax topic ...
The second to last word in the above Greek ... ἁγίοις ... is the dative plural masculine adjective, often read as "holy"
(I really dont know what "holy" means, so I prefer the reading of "sanctified") ... What makes this a text variant is that not all
of the source texts include this word:

ἅγιος ἀδελφοῖς
p46vid ‭א2 A K L P Ψ 075 0150 6 33 81 88 104 181 256 263 326 330 365 424 451 459 614 629 630 1175 1241 1319 1573 1739 1877 1881 1912 1962 2127 2200 2492 2495 Byz Lect itar itc itdem itdiv itx itz vg syrp syrh syrpal copbo goth arm (eth) geo2 Chrysostom Pelagius Theodorelat Euthaliusmss Theodoret John-Damascus ς ND Dio

ἀδελφοῖς
‭א* B D F G 431 436 1311 1907 2004 2464 itb itd ite itf itg itmon ito copsa geo1 slav Ambrosiaster Ephraem Euthalius Cassiodorus WH NR CEI Riv TILC Nv NM


Now that we've got that sorted out, let's get back to the topic at hand, that of the hapax or possible hapax ... and while we're at it, let's transliterate that
squiggle Greek, which is hard on the eyes, my old eyes, at least ...

Ὁρκίζω ὑμᾶς τὸν κύριον, ἀναγνωσθῆναι τὴν ἐπιστολὴν πᾶσιν τοῖς ἁγίοις ἀδελφοῖς.

orkizO humas ton kurion anagnOsthEnai tEn epistolEn pasin tois hagiois adelphois

So then, the word I'd now like to focus on, is the very first word in the above Greek ...Ὁρκίζω ... or ... orkizO
It's a verb, a present active indicative, first person singular (V-PAI-1S) verb, which Youung's is reading as .."I charge" ...
Rotherham also reads it this way, but the Dabhar ("The Writ") and the Concordant (CLNT) read it as "adjure" (which is also my preference,
seeing as how that word "charge" is better used for another Greek to English word); actually. the Dabhar reads it that way, the Concordant,
as always, tries to invoke some sort of odd ongoing participling "I am adjuring" ...

Moving right alone ... in the Strong’s and Goodrick/ Kohlenberger (GK) numbering systems, this verb is #3726 in Strongs, and #3991 in the GK,
which when you look it up, is found not only here in 1Thess, but also in Mark 5:7 and Acts 19:13 ... hence, being used three times, makes it not a hapax (unique).
But here's the rub, in Westcott and Hort, Tisehendorf, and the Greek New Testament SBL Edition GNTSBL" (similiar to the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum), the
verb is ...ἐνορκίζω ...

That is, and Alexandrian ...enorkizO ... instead of a Byzantine ...orkizO ...which is only found (in the Majority texts), here, in 1Thessalonians 5:27, and thus a hapax.
Now, the verb "enorkizO," either way, is still the same parsing/ declesion V-PAI-1S, but when that "en-" is added on to "orkizO" this makes it a differet word, a
combination word ... that is, instead of saying ..."I adjure" ... it says something like a hyphenated ..."I in-adjure" ..
(McReynold's, "Word Study Greek-English New Testament" even assignes it another Strong-like numbering #1774a)

What's the big deal? ... you're asking ... the verse still, basically, reads the same ... right?

"I in-adjure you ..."
"I adjure you ..."
"I charge you [by] the Lord, that the letter be read to all the holy brethren" (Youngs)

I dont know if it's a big deal or not ... I cant currently perceive any real difference, but there is a definite difference, which should only make us
curious as to why the Byzantine and Alexandrian texts include this difference ... what's the story behind this? And does the added/prefixed prepositiona
serve any purpose ...does it enhance or make the verb more emphatic, and if so, for what possible purpose?

My preference, of course, is the Byzantine reading, so my total hapaxes for 1Thes is only 17, not 18 ... but I'm still curious about this difference ... and
thought, perhaps, that some of you, too, might want to ponder over it a bit ... it makes, at least, for a good benign opening discussion between us, dont you think?

By the way, I think Young's could have left off that word he specifically added in brackets ..."[by]" ...
"I charge you [by] the Lord, that the letter be read to all the holy brethren" (Youngs)
Notice, too, that he also added the word ..."that" ... but failed to show this to his raeaders. Fie on you Robert!
Perhaps he had to add these two words because of was compelled to follow the grammatical rules for placement of the accusatives ...
That is the ..."humas ton kurion"... to you {1473 P-2AP} to the [One] {3588 T-ASM} to Lord {2962 N-ASM} ...
"I charge ...to you ... to the ... to Lord ... that"

Myself, I've found that our English rules of grammar ... or even our perceived ... conjectured ... rules for Koine Greek
are not always helpful; that is, just maybe, at times, it's better to break a perceived rule, if it helps to avoide our having
to editorially "enhance" our reading (like Robert did, here), just to stick to the grammar, as it is conjectured to be ...

Myself, I can read this verse without having to enhance it ... but I will be scolded for my poor grammar ... and yet my reading is more accurate ... your choice?

"To you, to the Lord I adjure, the epistle to be read unto all the sanctified brethren" (~Robin)
"I charge you [by] the Lord, that the letter be read to all the holy brethren" (Youngs)
Last edited by robinriley on Sun Jun 05, 2016 5:41 pm, edited 13 times in total.

dizerner

Re: 1Thessalonian Hapaxes

Post by dizerner » Fri Jun 03, 2016 8:20 am

This was enjoyable to read. I never heard of the Dabhar translation is it readily available.

I would guess the "en" adds a bit a solemnity or direction to it. The interesting opposite ἐξορκίζω is used in Mat 26:63. I checked the LXX and it uses ορκίζω about 4 times.

I'm puzzled though at you reversing the Greek order of the words while maintaining such a literal translation, it seems to hide some of the Greek when the whole point of the awkward literalism is to convey as much as possible.

"To you, to the Lord I adjure, the epistle to be read unto all the sanctified brethren" (~Robin)

Putting adjure first adds solemnity both in Greek and English, plus who starts a sentence with "to you" when it doesn't even convey the Greek order.

robinriley
Posts: 28
Joined: Tue May 31, 2016 1:05 am

Re: 1Thessalonian Hapaxes

Post by robinriley » Fri Jun 03, 2016 11:40 am

(dizerner)
...never heard of the Dabhar translation is it readily available?

(robin)
Yes, of course ... English version comes in a two volume set (old and new testaments), published in Schoemberg Germany in 2005, by F.H. Baader; called "The Writ" or Dabhar. My copy was a gift from Daniel Baader, the compiler, back when it was first being put on the market; he was freely giving his work away at the time, so I dont know what the cost might be currently ... but you will find it worthwhile, whatever it might be (and I'm sure it will be very reasonable cost, at that) ...

(dizerner)
..would guess the "en" adds a bit a solemnity or direction to it.

(Robin)
Yes, that was my guess, as well ... to adjure puts an oath to the matter, so a bit more solemnity might be appropriate; as with your most emphatic ..."I out-adjure" (#1844)... ἐξορκίζω...in Mat 26:63. By the way, I use the "Apostolic Bible Polyglot," by Charles Van der Pool, as my main reference to the LXX, and it shows that your ἐξορκίζω is also found in only Gen 24:3 and Jdg 17:2 ...however, I do see my non-hapax #3726 some 25 times in the OT, and the three previously mentioned times in the NT ... so you've got me curious, where else did you find your ἐξορκίζω used?

(dizerner)
...puzzled though at you reversing the Greek order of the words while maintaining such a literal translation

(Robin)
When one starts out ignorant, but scrappy, you pick up an odd trait or two, never knowing any better ... sometimes starting out ignorant of the "proper" way of dong things has it's blessings.

(dizerner)
It seems to hide some of the Greek when the whole point of the awkward literalism is to convey as much as possible.

(robin)
Really? ... Yes, I suppose you could say that literalism comes across as a bit "awkward" to the English ear; I like to think of it as more "Yoda-like" than awkward, but then it depends, I think, upon wheather one wants the gilded flow of the Stratford-Upon-Avon reading, or the more transparent ... as in one being able to look down through the English and see the Greek beneath?

That is, I'll grant you the "awkward," but I'm curious as to why you think this might tend to "hide" some of the Greek ... that concerns me, as that's just exactly why I dont worry about the perceived "Yoda-like" flavoring; that is, there's always a trade-off in translations ("all translators are liars"), so could you be a little more specfic about what you feel might be hidden? That is, make a good case of it, and I'd then attempt to be more On-Avon ...

(dizerner)
"To you, to the Lord I adjure, the epistle to be read unto all the sanctified brethren" (~Robin)
I charge you [by] the Lord, that the letter be read to all the holy brethren" (Youngs)

Putting adjure first adds solemnity both in Greek and English ...

(Robin)
So first of all, it appears that we're in agreement about this not being the hapax ..."I in-adjure" ... but the more common ..."I adjure" ... (or as Young would have it, "I charge") ...

That is, "I adjure," certainly puts the oath to it, all by itself ... which now that I think about it, why do we have those other instances of the even more emphatic ...ἐξορκίζω ...
That is, there just might be something we could learn from those verses, where more solemnity is, apparently, intended to be invoked ... interesting thought, there, wat?

(dizerner)
...plus who starts a sentence with "to you" when it doesn't even convey the Greek order?

(robin)
Apparently Paul does ... 8>) .... but my snide humor aside (sorry, I'm Irish at heart)

(dizerner)
...plus who starts a sentence with "to you" when it doesn't even convey the Greek order?

(robin)
Try this out ... I suspect that Pauls letters were intended to be spoken;
that is, a designated reader stood before the small ecclesia and presented it as oral testimony, perhaps including a little acting-out and emphatic body language ...
So pretend you're this speaker, and you want to put a bit of emphatic "solemnity" to it ... that is, wave your hands about, point your finger, and raise your voice, saying ...

To YOU,
To the LORD ...I ADJURE ...this epistle be read unto all ... ALL the sanctified brethren!

(dizerner)
...plus who starts a sentence with "to you" when it doesn't even convey the Greek order?

(robin)
Greek word order? ... Ummmmm ... indeed, I do try my best to keep as close as possible to the original syntax,
but you know, as well as I, that the Greek word order doesn't need to follow the same "rules" as is required of English ...

But the topic thread was intended to be about 1Thessalonian hapaxes, there are 17 of them, not 18 ... as we've found ...
so are you "up" for some more discussion ...I've enjoyed talking with you, let's keep the back and forth going (and I'll do my best to keep the Irish humor at a minimum)

dizerner

Post by dizerner » Fri Jun 03, 2016 8:45 pm

Sure, you're nice and I'm very interested, but I'm a beginner with Greek so realize that!

And you're right about #3726 I was searching one form! I also have VanderPool's (cowhide leather!) Polyglot! Lovely resource.

Tell me more about your goals and experience, maybe you can also give me some helpful advice.

Singalphile
Posts: 903
Joined: Sun Apr 22, 2012 12:46 pm

Re: 1Thessalonian Hapaxes

Post by Singalphile » Sat Jun 04, 2016 11:50 am

Welcome, robinriley! :)
... that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. John 5:23

robinriley
Posts: 28
Joined: Tue May 31, 2016 1:05 am

Re:

Post by robinriley » Sat Jun 04, 2016 4:21 pm

dizerner wrote:Sure, you're nice and I'm very interested, but I'm a beginner with Greek so realize that!

And you're right about #3726 I was searching one form! I also have VanderPool's (cowhide leather!) Polyglot! Lovely resource.

Tell me more about your goals and experience, maybe you can also give me some helpful advice.
(dizerner)
...very interested

(robin)
Happy to have sparked your imaginations ...

(dizerner)
...I'm a beginner with Greek so realize that!

(robin)
But tell me true,
did you stand before a mirror, as if before a small ecclesia, and say this verse out loud; along with the emphatic hand jestures ...
did you?

I have, and it just sort of seems natural, here, even if you've not often READ others starting out a sentence this way ... they didn't have "bibles" back then,
they, at best had limited collections of a few valuable letters, which certain individual were intrusted with, to read before a gathering ... or that's how I envision the happening back then ...

To YOU,
To the LORD ...I ADJURE ...this epistle be read unto all ... ALL the sanctified brethren!

(dizerner)
...also have VanderPool's (cowhide leather!) Polyglot! Lovely resource.

(robin)
Good! Now that we've both mentioned it, perhaps this will intrigue others to look into getting this useful scriptural resource ...
And, too, thank you for asking me more about the "Dabar" ("The Writ") ... I truely wish that everyone had a copy of this.

(dizerner)
Tell me more about your goals and experience, maybe you can also give me some helpful advice.

(robin)
I have lots of advice, just ask my kids ... but not all of it should be paid any attention to ... just ask my two daughters;
however, they did survive their childhood, and both have gone on to be kind, sharing, and smart adults. But then, that was all
my wife's doing.

My experience ... life experiences ... 69 years of them, any number of countries, a craftsman in three trades, navied in a nuclear submarine,
picked apples and cots as a child, have hunted elk and mountain goats, went to college to be an English teacher, was a line's man for the county,
certifed warships ready for sea, refueled/defuled nuclear reactors, and was a quality assurance auditor for only a few years less than the 39 I've
been married ... met her at a square dance, she thought I was a high-water jeans hick ... swept her off her feet, in other words.

robinriley
Posts: 28
Joined: Tue May 31, 2016 1:05 am

Re: 1Thessalonian Hapaxes

Post by robinriley » Sat Jun 04, 2016 4:33 pm

Singalphile wrote:Welcome, robinriley! :)

(robin)
Thank you Singalphile, it's nice to be welcomed ... interesting handle, moniker, tag, appellation you have;
tried it out on a number of ideas, came up with the possibility that you are a lover (philia) of song (sing),
or that you love to sing ...

Singalphile
Posts: 903
Joined: Sun Apr 22, 2012 12:46 pm

Re: 1Thessalonian Hapaxes

Post by Singalphile » Sat Jun 04, 2016 11:12 pm

robinriley wrote:... interesting handle, moniker, tag, appellation you have; tried it out on a number of ideas, came up with the possibility that you are a lover (philia) of song (sing), or that you love to sing ...
Well, I like usernames. But my username doesn't really mean anything in particular. I liked the sound of it, and it goes along with "narrow path" theme a bit, and I spelled it funny just to make it unique.

That's all. :)
... that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. John 5:23

dizerner

Re: Re:

Post by dizerner » Sun Jun 05, 2016 10:07 am

robinriley wrote:
dizerner wrote:Sure, you're nice and I'm very interested, but I'm a beginner with Greek so realize that!

And you're right about #3726 I was searching one form! I also have VanderPool's (cowhide leather!) Polyglot! Lovely resource.

Tell me more about your goals and experience, maybe you can also give me some helpful advice.
(dizerner)
...very interested

(robin)
Happy to have sparked your imaginations ...

(dizerner)
...I'm a beginner with Greek so realize that!

(robin)
But tell me true,
did you stand before a mirror, as if before a small ecclesia, and say this verse out loud; along with the emphatic hand jestures ...
did you?

I have, and it just sort of seems natural, here, even if you've not often READ others starting out a sentence this way ... they didn't have "bibles" back then,
they, at best had limited collections of a few valuable letters, which certain individual were intrusted with, to read before a gathering ... or that's how I envision the happening back then ...

To YOU,
To the LORD ...I ADJURE ...this epistle be read unto all ... ALL the sanctified brethren!

(dizerner)
...also have VanderPool's (cowhide leather!) Polyglot! Lovely resource.

(robin)
Good! Now that we've both mentioned it, perhaps this will intrigue others to look into getting this useful scriptural resource ...
And, too, thank you for asking me more about the "Dabar" ("The Writ") ... I truely wish that everyone had a copy of this.

(dizerner)
Tell me more about your goals and experience, maybe you can also give me some helpful advice.

(robin)
I have lots of advice, just ask my kids ... but not all of it should be paid any attention to ... just ask my two daughters;
however, they did survive their childhood, and both have gone on to be kind, sharing, and smart adults. But then, that was all
my wife's doing.

My experience ... life experiences ... 69 years of them, any number of countries, a craftsman in three trades, navied in a nuclear submarine,
picked apples and cots as a child, have hunted elk and mountain goats, went to college to be an English teacher, was a line's man for the county,
certifed warships ready for sea, refueled/defuled nuclear reactors, and was a quality assurance auditor for only a few years less than the 39 I've
been married ... met her at a square dance, she thought I was a high-water jeans hick ... swept her off her feet, in other words.
Well... now I feel like my life is pretty uninteresting. Really nice to meet you Robin, and yes I think reading "I adjure you" I always imagined at least a raising of the hand. :)

robinriley
Posts: 28
Joined: Tue May 31, 2016 1:05 am

Re: 1Thessalonian Hapaxes

Post by robinriley » Sun Jun 05, 2016 2:39 pm

(robin)
Well, now that we're back on topic, hapaxes, specifically 1Thessalonian hapaxes ...(Anyone know how to turn this ever ready, ever wrong spell checker OFF!) ...

Here's something I've learned along the way, more like I was sternly corrected, but there was a lesson passed on ...by the way hapaxes or "hapax legomenon"
is a transliteration of Greek ἅπαξ λεγόμενον, meaning "something said only once" ... that is, occurs only once within the written text, which in this case would be the NT,
so I suppose if we were to be talking about the "Bible" as a whole, this would have to be a word that occured only once in both the OT and NT ... but I'm just talking
about such words, in relation to the NT. Also, the term is sometimes incorrectly used to describe a word that occurs in just one of an author's epistles, even though it
occurs more than once in that rest of the NT. But here's a factor, which I dont necessarilly agree with, but which I've since used in building my hapaxe lists ...that is,
the word, in any form (declination/ parsing/ local spelling) can only be used once; in this case, only once in the NT). The reason I dont necessarilly agree with this, is
that it's only logical that "unique is unique," so if you have a particular word that only appears once in the NT as nominative, and then again, only once as a genitive,
aren't these both unique ... for example, in the 13 epistles of Paul the present active participle "pleasing" does, indeed appears twice, but only once, in just one of
his letters as the nominative plural masculine "areskontes," and just once, in just one of his letters as the genitive plural masculine "areskontOn" ... are these not,
two very different words, both in looks and use? NOPE!

0700 GK0743 areskontes (p1/1) pleasing V-PAP-NPM.5723
0700 GK0743 areskontOn (p1/1) of pleasing V-PAP-GPM.5723

The above is from the word list I've compiled from Thessalonians; there are 593 different words (different declensions, parsings, and spellings);
17 are unique (~p1~), hapax legomenon/ hapaxes; also included are 10 alternate words used in such Greek Critical Texts *GCT as the
“Greek New Testament SBL Edition,” (GNTSBL) by Michael Holmes (as reviewed against Westcott and Hort, Tisehendorf, and Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum).
Listed here by both the Strong’s and Goodrick/ Kohlenberger (GK) numbering systems, each word is noted by the number of times used; a suggested English reading;
and the applicable parsing/ declensions (along with a corresponding two-digit, or four-digit number for sorting). Many Greek words can be read in more than one way,
but the parsings/ declensions given here, reflect that found in “The New Testament In The Original Greek - Byzantine Textform 2005,” (RP2005) by Maurice Robinson
and William Pierpoint. The number in parenthesis (1) accounts not only for the occurrences of a word/ word form, but also indicates if it is unique to Paul (p1), and
whether it is found in just this epistle (p1/1). Setting aside the 10 alternate words *GCT there are 168 word/ word forms out of 583, which are unique to Paul (29%).

Ps. By the way, that last number "5723" indicates the verb form (V-PAP in this case), which is, of course, already shown, but the number comes in helpful when doing
a computer search ... there are over seven pages of present active participles in Paul's epistles (about 55 per page) out of a total NT count of 2549 ... busy verb, wat?

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