Synonyms of the New Testament
a]gnoei?n, as opposed to the 248 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. §LXVI. e]kousi
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248 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. §LXVI. e]kousi the extenuation of the sinfulness of the sin. There is therefore an eminent fitness in the employment of the word on the one occasion, referred to already, where it appears in the N. T. The a]gnoh people, for which the High Priest offered sacrifice on the great day of atonement, were not wilful transgressions, "presumptuous sins” (Ps. xix. 13), committed kata> proai high hand against God; those who committed such were cut off from the congregation; no provision having been made in the Levitical constitution for the forgiveness of such (Num. xv. 30, 31); but they were sins growing out of the weakness of the flesh, out of an imperfect insight into God's law, out of heedlessness and lack of due cir- cumspection (a]kousi xv. 22-29), and afterwards looked back on with shame and regret. The same distinction exists between a@gnoia and a]gno former is often the more abstract, the latter is always the concrete.
a briefer form if the word, is opposed to ni fiture or worsting to victory. It has there past very much through the same stages as the Latin ‘clades.’ It ap- pears once in same Septuagint (Isai. xxxi. 8), and twice in the N. T., namely at Rom. xi. 12; I Cor. vi. 7; but only in the latter instance having an ethical sense, as a coming short of duty, a fault, the German ‘fehler,’ the Latin ‘delictum.’ Gerhard (Loc. Theoll. xi.): [h!tthma diminutio, defectus, ab h[tta?sqai victum esse, quia pec- catores succumbunt carnis et Satanae tentationibus.'
15; Num. xviii. 9, and often), and not rare in later eccle- siastical Greek (thus see Clement of Rome, I Ep. 41),
who sings out of tune (plh>n and me one who is in tune, and e]mme of the voice to the music; it is properly a discord or dis- harmony (plhmme 7);—so that Augustine's Greek is at fault when he finds in it me a discord or disharmony in the grea, symphonies of the universe: ‘disproportioned sin Jarred against nature's chime, and with harsh din Broke the fair music that all creatures made To their great Lord.’
same passage, may be compared, observes on the more important Hebrew words, which more or less correspond with these: ‘Die Sunde heisst fwaP als Losreissung von Gott, Treubruch, Fall aus dem Gnadenstande, [=a]se hxAFAhE als Verfehlung des Gottgewollten Zieles, Abirrung vom Gottgeflligen, Vollbringung les Gottwidrigen [=a[marti Verschuldung [=a]nomi expressing a higher antiquity than the other, and at all sought in this the distinction between them. On the con- trary, this remoter antiquity will be expressed now by one, now by the other. ]Arxai?oj, expressing that which was
this as the first beginning of all, be of er than, person or thing that is merely palaio ago (pa many later beginnings, that it is quite passible to conceive the palaio 250 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. § LXVII.
appropriated to the discussion of those subjects of which the antiquity i only comparative, it would be consistent with the usual distinction between a]rxai?oj and palaio give the name of palaeology to those sciences which aim at reproducing a absolutely primeval state or condition.’ I fail to trace n the uses of palaio all events at all so constant a sense, of a more primeval state or condition, as in this statement is implied. Thus compare Thucydides, ii. 15: cumbe a]rxai?ou, that is, from the prehistoric time of Cecrops, with i. 18: Lakedai times, but still within the historic period; where the words are used in senses exactly reversed. The distinction between a]rxai?oj and palaio not to be looked for here, is on many occasions not to be looked for at all. Often they occur together as merely cumulative syonyms, or at any rate with no higher antiquity predicated by the one than by the other (Plato,
the etymology of the words that in cases out of number they may be quite indifferently used; that which was from the beginning will have been generally from a long while since; and that which was from a long while since will have been often from the beginning. Thus the a]rxai fwnh< of one passage in Plato (Crat. 418 c) is exactly equivalent to he palaiof another (Ib. 398 d); the a]rxai?oi qeoi< of one passage in the Euthyphro are the
alike mean the ancients (Plutarch, Cons. ad Apoll. 14 and 33); there cannot be much difference between palaioi>
At the same time it is evident that whenever an em- phasis is designed to be laid on the reaching back to a beginning, whatever that beginning may be, a]rxai?oj will § LXVII. SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 251
gether (Isai. xxxiii. 18). Satan is o[ o@fij o[ a]rxai?oj, (Rev. xii. 9; xx. 2), his malignant counterworkings of God reaching back to the earliest epoch in the history of man. The world before the flood, that therefore which was indeed from the first, is o[ a]rxai?oj ko was a]rxai?oj maqhth in the sense in which English readers almost inevitably take the words, namely, ‘an aged disciple,’ but one who had been such from the commencement of the faith, from the day of Pentecost or before it; aged very probably he will have been; but it is not this which the word declares. The original founders of the Jewish Commonwealth, who, as such, gave with authority the law, are oi[ a]rxai v. 21, 27, 33; cf. I Sam. xxiv. 14 Isai. xxv. i); pi from the beginning, "once delivere to the saints." The Timaeus of Plato, 22 b, offers an instructive passage in which both words occur, where it is not hard to trace the finer instincts of language which nave determined their several employment. Sophocles (Trachin. 546) has another, where Deianira speaks of the poisoned shirt, the gift to her of Nessus: h#n moi palaio>n dw?ron a]rxai qhro>j, le AEschylus (Eumenides, 727, 728) furnishes a third. ]Arxai?oj, like the Latin ‘priscus,’ will often designate the ancient as also the venerable, as that to which the honour due to antiquity belongs; thus Ku?roj o[ a]rxai?oj (Xenophon, Anab. i. 9. 1; cf. Aristophanes, Nub. 961); just as on the other side ‘modern’ is always used slight- ingly by Shakespeare; and it is here that we reach a point of marked divergence between it and palaio off into a secondary meaning of its own, which it does not share with the other, but possesses exclusively as its proper domain. I have just observed that the honour of antiquity 252 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. §LXVII.
gether strange to palaio that cleave to the ancient; it is often old-fashioned, seems ill-adapted to the present, to be part and parcel of a world which has past way. We have a witness for this in the fact that 'antique' and 'antic' are only different spellings of one and the some word. There lies often in a]rxai?oj this sense superadded of old-world fashion; not merely antique, but antiquated and out of date, not merely 'alterthum- lich,' but ‘altfrankisch' (AEschylus, Prom. Vinct. 325; Aristophanes, Plut. 323; Nub. 915; Pax, 554, xai But while a]rxai?oj goes off in this direction (we have, indeed, no example in the N. T.), palaio another, of which the N. T. usage will supply a large number of examples. That which has existed long has been exposed to, and in many cases will have suffered from, the wrongs and injuries of time; it will be old in the sense of mire or less worn out; and this is always palaio laioi< (Matt. ix. 17); so a]skoi> palaioi> kai> kater]r[wgo ix. 10); palaia> r[a while oi[ a]rxai?oi could never express the old men of a living generation as compared with the young of the same, of palaioi< continually bears this sense; thus ne (Homer, Il. xiv. 108, and often); poluetei?j kai> palaioi<, (Philo, De Vit. Cont. 8; cf. Job xv. 10). It is the same with the words formed on palaio de> palaiou 11; Luke xii. 3; Ecclus. xiv. 17; while Plato joins palaio 1 The same lies, or may lie, in ‘vetus,’ as in Tertullian's pregnant antithesis (Adv. Marc. i. 8): 'Deus si est vetus, non erit; si est novus, non fuit.' § LXVIII. SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 253 Aristophanes, Plut. 1086: tru>c palaia> kai> sapra<). As often as palaio out, or wearing out, by age, it will absolutely demand
viii. 13), as it will also sometimes h ve it on other occa- sions (Herodotus, ix. 26, bis). When this does not lie in the word, there is nothing to prevent ne against it (Lev. xxvi. 10; Homer, Od. ii. 293; Plato.
720; Isocrates, xv. 82; Plato, Euthyphro, 3 b; Philo, De Vit. Con. I0). § lxviii. a@fqartoj, a]ma IT is a remarkable testimony to the reign of sin, and therefore of imperfection, of decay, of death, throughout this whole fallen world, that as often as we desire to set forth the glory, purity, and perfection of that other higher world toward which we strive, we are almost inevitably compelled to do this by the aid of negatives, by the deny- ing to that higher order of things the leading features and characteristics of this. Such is signally the case in a pas- sage wherein two of the words with which we are now deal- ing occur. St. Peter, magnifying the inheritance reserved in heaven for the faithful (I Pet. i. 4 , does this,—and he had hardly any choice in the matter, —by aid of three negatives; by affirming that it is a@fqartoj, or without our corruption; that it is (a]mi that it is a]ma away. He can only set forth what it is by declaring what it is not. Of these three, however I set one, namely
being too evident to leave them fair subjects of synonymous discrimination.
254 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. § LXVIII. in the Septuagint, and only twice in the Apocrypha (Wisd. xii. I; xviii. 4). Properly speaking, God only is a@fqartoj, the heathen theology recognizing this not less clearly than the Biblical. Thus Plutarch (De Stoic. Rep. 38) quotes the grand saying of the Stoic philosopher, Antipater of Tarsus,
Laertius, x. 31. 139. And in agreement with this we find the word by him associated with i]so 20); so, too, with o]lu corresponding ‘Immortal’ we have rendered it on one occasion (1 Tim. i. 17); but there is a clear distinction between it any a]qa and ‘incorruptible,’ by which we have given it in other places (1 Cor ix. 25; xv. 52; I Pet. i. 23), is to be pre- ferred; the word predicating of God that He is exempt from that wear and waste and final perishing; that fqora<, which time, and sin working in time, bring about in all which is outside of Him, and to which He has not com- municated of his own a]fqarsi li. 6; Heb. i. 10-12).
once also in the Apocrypha, being joined there with lampro (I Pet. v. 4). There may well be a question whether (a]mara rendered ‘of amaranths.’ We, however, have made no distinction be weep the two, having rendered both by the same circumlocution, ‘that fadeth not away’; our Translators no doubt counting ‘immarcescible'—a word which has found favour with Bishops Hall and Taylor and with other schelarly writers of the seventeenth century— too much of ‘inkhorn term’ to be admitted into our English Bible. Even the Rheims Translators, with ‘immar- § LXIX. SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 255 cescibilis’ in the Vulgate before them, have not ventured upon it. In this a]ma inheritance that it is exempt from that swift withering which is the portion of all the loveliness which springs out of an earthly root; the most exquisite beauty which the natural world can boast, that, namely, of the flower, being also the shortest-lived ('breve lilium') the quickest to fall away and fade and. die (Job xiv. 2; Ps. xxxvii. 2; viii. 15; Isai. xl. 6, 7; Matt. vi. 30; Jam. i. 9; I Pet. i. 24). All this is declared to find no place in hat inheritance of unfading loveliness, reserved for the faithful in heaven. If, indeed, it be asked wherein a@fqartoj and a]ma differ, what the latter predicates concerning this heavenly inheritance which the former had not claimed already, the answer must be that essentially it claims nothing; yet with all this in a]ma pledge that the more delicate grace, beauty, and bloom which it owns will as little wither and wane as will its solid and substantial worth depart. Not merely decay and corruption cannot touch it; but it shall wear its freshness, brightness, and beauty for ever. Estius: ‘Im-
amaranti floris, semper retinet, ut nullo unquam tempore possessori fastidium tdiumve subrepat.’
period that meta verbs, metanoei?n and metame where it is intended to express the mere desire that the done might be undone, accompanied with regrets or even with remorse, but with no effective change of heart, there the latter words are employed; but where a true change of heart toward God, there the former. It was Beza, I believe, who first strongly urged this. He was followed 256 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. § LXIX. by many; thus see Spanheim, Dub. Evang. vol. iii. dub. 9; and Chillingworth (Sermons before Charles I. p. 11): 'To this purpose it is worth the observing, that when the Scripture speaks of that kind of repentance, which is only sorrow for something done, and wishing it undone, it con- stantly useth the word metame sins is nowwhere promised. So it is written of Judas the son of perdition (Matt. xxvii. 3), metamelhqei>j a]pe repented and went and hanged himself, and so constantly in other places. But that repentance to which remission of sins and salvation is promised, is perpetually expressed by the word meta of the hear and soul, of the life and actions.' Let me, before proceeding further, correct a slight in- accuracy in this statement. Metame in the N. T; only once in the Old (Hos. xi. 8). So far as we are dealing with N. T. synonyms, it is properly between the verbs alone that the comparison can be instituted, and a distinction drawn; though, indeed, what stands good of them will stand good of their substantives as well. But even after this correction made, the statement will itself need a certain qualification. Jeremy Taylor allows as much; whose words—they occur in his great treatise, On
follows: ‘The Greeks use two words to express this duty, metame post factum angi et cruciari, to be afflicted in mind, to be troubled for our former folly; it is dusare we have done and it is generally used for all sorts of re- pentance; but more properly to signify either the beginning of a good, or the whole state of an ineffective, repentance. In the first sense we find it in St. Matthew, u[mei?j de> i]do did not repent that ye might believe Him.' Of the second sense we have an example in Judas, metamelh § LXIX. SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 257 he "repented" too, but the end of it was he died with anguish and despair. . . . There is in this repentance a sorrow for what is done, a disliking of the thing with its consequents and effect, and so far also it is a change of mind. But it goes no further than so far to change the mind that it brings trouble and sorrow, and such things as are the natural events of it. . . When there was a difference made, meta not properly signify the sorrow for having done amiss, but something that is nobler than it, but brought in at the gate of sorrow. For h[ kata> Qeo>n lu
that is metame meta meta Taylor. Presently, however, he admits that ‘however the grammarians may distinguish them, yet the words are used promiscuously,’ and that no rigid line of discrimina- tion can be drawn between them as some have attempted to draw. This in its measure is true, yet not so true but that a predominant use of one and of the other can very clearly be traced. There was, as is well known, a conflict between the early Reformers and the Roman Catholic divines whether ‘poenitentia,’ as the latter affirmed, or ‘resipiscentia,’ as Beza and the others, was the better Latin rendering of ‘meta on both sides; but it is clear that if the standing word had been metame told to a certain degree in favour of the Roman Catholic view. ‘Poenitentia,’ says Augustine (De Ver. et Fals. Poen. c. viii.), ‘est qumdam dolentis vindicta, semper puniens in se quod dolet commisisse.’ Metanoei?n is properly to know after, as pronoei?n to know before, and meta ledge; which is well brought out by Clement of Alexan- dria (Strom. ii. 6): ei] e]f ] oi$j h!marten meteno Yüklə 3,52 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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