[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: "word" games
On Mon, 31 Dec 2001, J. Marie Hall wrote:
> > . . . the words "rhema" and "logos" (both translated "word"; I don't
> > know enough Greek to understand the differences between them) . . .
>
> i looked into this a _long_ time ago--i'll try and dig out what i found
> once i'm back in tallahassee. but peter or somebody: do you remember
> offhand?
Nope. Never studied Greek. Took Hebrew for a year, though, and promptly
found my assignments confusing once we had so many verb tenses to learn.
I wouldn't know how to categorize my *English* verbs like that, let alone
verbs in a language the alphabet of which I learned a few months ago.
> i pasted some things below--but i don't understand the significance with
> regard to the greek way of thinking.
>
> that site says (using strong's i think) rhema is:
>
> 1) that which is or has been uttered by the living voice, thing spoken,
> word
[ snip ]
> and that logos is:
>
> 1) of speech
> 1a) a word, uttered by a living voice, embodies a conception or idea
Hmmm, based on this, the key distinction may be that "rhema" refers to the
words that are spoken and "logos" refers to the idea *behind* those words.
> A Greek philosopher named Heraclitus first used the term Logos around
> 600 B.C. to designate the divine reason or plan which coordinates a
> changing universe. This word was well suited to John's purpose in John
> 1.
And in this, the author of John was building on the ideas of other
Hellenistic Jewish thinkers, such as Philo (who lived both before and
after Jesus, being born c. 20-15 BC and dying c. AD 45-50).
http://www.encyclopedia.com/printablenew/28153.html
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09328a.htm
--- Peter T. Chattaway --------------------------- peter at chattaway_com ---
"I detected one misprint, but to torture you I will not tell you where."
Winston Churchill to T.E. Lawrence, re Seven Pillars of Wisdom
---------------
Unsubscribe by going to http://www.actwin.com/OtR/
References: