Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

gmark - Re: Temptations

gmark AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Kata Markon

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Jeffrey B. Gibson" <jgibson000 AT mailhost.chi.ameritech.net>
  • To: Kata Markon <gmark AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Temptations
  • Date: Wed, 06 Oct 1999 15:16:01 -0500


Mike Parsons wrote:

> Reply to: RE: [gmark] Re: Temptations
> sorry to be getting into this thread late, but i wanted to make partial
> response to the questions about the occurrence of peirasmos and its
> cognates in the greek novels
>
> J. Gibson wrote
>
> >> > Also, I'm curious about your assertion that there is a tradition
> >regarding
> >> > "testing" and/or a use of the "testing motif" in the Greek Novel. Can
> >you
> >> > tell
> >> > me when and where this appears? And can you tell me whether or not,
> >> > when
> >it
> >> > appears, what the technical language of "testing" is? That is to say,
> >> > is
> >it
> >> > the
> >> > noun PEIRASMOS and its verbal cognates PEIRAZW, EKPEIRAZW, etc., or
> >some
> >> > other
> >> > terminology?
> >******************
> So far as I know (after
> >searching
> >> all forms of PEIRASMOS and cognates in the TLG -- which in terms of the
> >number
> >> of instances of the terminology is far more extensive than those noted in
> >LSJ),
> >> the terminology does not appear in any of the Hellenistic Greek Novels
> >such as
> >> Chariton, etc.
> >**********************
>
> 1) first, i'd like to know how many occurrences of peirasmos you found in
> the TLG. the author of the article in TDNT (if i recall correctly) says
> there are only 3 occurrences in greek literature. have you found more?

Yes, before ce 200 , at least 2 more times: In addition to those that
Seeseman mentions (Pedanius Dioscorides, Mat. Med. Praef. 5.12; Cyranides
Sec. 40.24, the Syntipas p. 124 of the edition of Jernstedt and Nikition), it
appears in Ptolemaeus of Ascalon, De differentia vocabulorum, Sigma 146;
Aelius Herodianus, Partitiones 110.5, . If one assumes relatively early
dates for the commentaries instances in the Anonymi in Aristotelis Artem
Rhetoricum, the Anonymi in Aristotelis Ethica: In Ethica Nichomachea
Commentaria, and the Scholia on Eupripdes--then it is instanced 5 more times:
at Anon.Art.Rhet.Comm. 98.29, 102.29, 103.9; Anon.Eth.Nich.Comm. 454.10;
Schol.Eurip., sch Hecuba 1226.

>
> 2) we just finished reading xenophon's the ephesian tale. as you may know,
> the greek text is in something of a mess, but the teubner edition does list
> a number of occurrences of peiraomai in its index. i have not had a chance
> to check them all, but a couple might be of interest in terms of a
> "testing" motif. the first occurrence of the word, an articular infinitive
> (tou peirathanai) is when some of the servants (themselves about to die on
> a burning ship) rejoice that their masters, Anthia and Habrocomes, "will be
> lucky enought to die without suffering the pirates' chains!" Here the
> translator graham anderson has rendered (perhaps reasonably enough) tou
> peirathanai as "suffering." later when habracomes and anthia learn that
> they are both the objects of lustful pirates, Anthia bemoans, taxeus ths
> douleias peirometha, which anderson translates, "how soon we are
> experiencing slavery!" of course, peiraomai in the middle sense may simply
> mean "experience" (as BAGD points out), but in
> light of this discussion, it might be fruitful to explore the other
> occurrences of this term in Xenophon, since one could reasonably translate
> these two occurrences as part of a testing, i.e., the oath of fidelity
> habrocomes and anthia have made to each other is tested by chains, by
> lustful pirates, an angry woman (2.3.5), etc. this is far more than sexual
> temptation, in fact, i haven't found that use in xenophon so far (several
> instances do seem to mean simply "try," "attempt"). i'm surprised none of
> these came up in your TLG search. are we sure the Ephesian Tale is in the
> databank? (again, as you know, many texts are yet to be added, including
> many from the jewish pseudepigrapha--i find denis concordance still the
> best way to access these texts).
> for what it's worth,
> mikeal

The reason for this is that all of the instances you cite above are forms of
the verb PEIRAW not PEIRAZW. I do have this data in hand, but have not looked
at it in any depth. Interestingly -- at least to my eyes -- while PEIRAW does
mean "attempt" but only when it is in an infinitive form or used with a
verbal object (ala PEIRAZW on occasion in Acts = what Seeseman called "the
secular use" of the term), it most often means "to prove/probe/try a person's
faithfulness or character or integrity" and, so far as my (admittedly)
limited examination of the instances of PEIRAW in context -- and your
citations suggest, but NEVER "to entice" or "to be enticed/seduced" =to
tempt/be tempted.

Yours,

Jeffrey

--
Jeffrey B. Gibson
7423 N. Sheridan Road #2A
Chicago, Illinois 60626
e-mail jgibson000 AT ameritech.net






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page