Partiality and Faces

There's a word only used in the #NewTestament in #Greek that gets translated as favoritism respect bias or partiality. #prosoopolee(m)psia.

It appears in Romans 2:11, (RSV) "For God shows no partiality."
It is also used in Acts 10:34, Galatians 2:6, Ephesians 6:9, and Colossians 3:25.

It appears to have been created to translate Hebrew verbs expressing the same idea such as those used in Deut 10:17. and other verses. Google partiality in the Bible and you'll see a wide variety of terms in the Old Testament but words used in the Greek Testament are a smaller group?

Now the Greek is face/ appearance prosoopon plus le(m)psia which derives from lambano.
Literally its face taking so it appears  that for Paul and Peters congregations bias and favoritism was having your respect for a person or giving a person respect or privilege based on their OUTwards appearance or social persona, rank, ethnicity, or religious.

God does not make binary or other distinctions between Hebrews and Sojourners, Jews and Greeks, slave and free, rich and poor, a convert like Cornelius the centurion or Jew by birth like Paul.

Divine and human justice is not based on privilege or who you are but what you have done.

Solar Crowns

Last week and the week before  I showed you a variety of headgear worn by monarchs on coins and other art and showed you how UNLIKE modern crowns they were.

So why did later European monarchs start wearing spiked crowns rather than jewelled headbands?

One reason might have been the radiate solar crown used by some Hellenistic monarchs and LATE Empire Caesars.

The god Helios was traditionally shown wearing a crown of rays.

Hellenistic and Roman SYNCRETISM lead to people identifying Apollo or Helios with various Near Eastern and Egyptian Solar Deities. 

I suspect an attempt to identify with Horus lead to the Ptolemies using a radiate crown.

The First Caesars however did not wear crowns but the revival and spread of various Solar deities from Syria and Persia, the cults of Sol Invictus, Mithras, and Shams, and others lead to a brief revival of the radiate crown started by Aurelianus who had coins issued showing Helios on one side and his image with a radiate crown on the other.

I'm thinking also that perhaps some later jewellers were given Roman coins to melt down and remove the "pagan" imagery and were asked to recycle the coins into crowns but seing the coins and perhaps survivng mosaics or statutes of Helios got ideas.

I have more Helios art I'll share soon.

Strolling Scribes

#bible study #scribes #gospelofmark #mark  #newtestamentgreek

STROLLING SCRIBES 

Mark 12:38-40 
(see also Luke 20:45-47 and Matthew 23: 5-7)
Literal word for word translation follows

Verse 38
and in the teaching of him he was saying
note the use of  elegen in Greek not said but saying perhaps because he said this several times?

Blepete apo look about (at) consider regard the scribes (and their actions)

 theloo is the verb liking / wanting
in stoles (perhaps not just fringed shawls but long over-robes in contrast to the shorter everyday wear and tunics of workers
peripatein to walk about to stroll casually
and (liking) aspasmos greetings  in the market place / town centre
The agora was the town centre for markets and business with major admin buildings nearby

Socializing when they should be teaching?

Verse 39

and first chairs (places of honor special seating in the "front row" in the synagouges
and firstcouches in meals = at dinners possibly even Greek or Roman style dinners or feasts
if they were reclining on couches.

Verse 40 (the scribes are) those who eat down  - we would say eat up or consume -
the house(hold)s of widows and clearly he means money not just food
as an excuse praying

like some modern preachers who say they'll pray for you if you send money or any priest or shaman or guru or cult leader  in any religion who wants money not just to cover expenses but to make a profit from prayers or rituals

Note he is not saying pastors and priests can't ask for donations or charge to cover expenses from those who can afford to and have money but he is condemning those who take money from the poor and ... widows were supposed to be protected and helped not prey for the greedy.

they will receive leempsontai is the future of lambano a  more (severe) perissoteron  punishment krima

Do I need to name examples of modern preachers or priests or pastors who do this?

The ones who are always seen wearing makeup and hand tailored clothes and not just to cover blemishes or because they look bad in readymade suits.

The ones who want to be seen with celebrities or politicians at prayer breakfasts or sporting events or rallies.

Don't be a strolling scribe! Be a teacher and expert who uses their knowledge to help others.

Coins NOT Crowns

#coins #ancient coins #crowns #wreaths #coinage #hellenistic monarchs
In several countries with monarchs rulers are often shown on coins wearing crowns.
However Hellenistic monarchs are more likely to be shown wearing a stephanos or wreath or a hat !

Here are some examples:

Queen Arsinoe 1 wearing a diadem or a modified polos perhaps

A Macedonian monarch wearing a headband 

note the headbands or wreaths

finally the one image I found showing something like a crown

however the spikes on this probably represent the rays of the sun

Crowns as we know them developed later

Soophron in Titus

#titus #epistles #soophron #newtestamentgreek.

For one reason Paul left a bit overboard with using words derived from the #Soophron stem in his Letter to Titus. This however gives us examples all clustered together to study and also serves to remember us the words we see in Classical literature were part of a living language.

Titus 1:8 A church overseer must be hospitable, literally philoxenon , a friendhost, and philagathon, lovinggood, and SOOPHRONA, sober temperate or sensible, reinforced by egkratee.

Titus 2

Verse 1 Church Elders (male) must be amongst other virtues soophronas

Verse 4 Female elders should SOOPHRONIZOOSIN the young women, make them be sensible or have common sense or practical wisdom even, not I think just be modest, given its usage elswhere in this letter.

Verse 5 has soophronas again could be modest or sensible

Verse 6 soophronein the younger (single men / husbands ) likewise encourage to be sensible / moderate

Verse 12 instead of worldly desires or passions kosmikas epithumias people are to live soophronoos and dikaioos and euseboos, sensibly, justly and reverently.

One wonders just how silly or cheeky some of the Cretan church members were that Paul needed to stress this particular virtue?

However my major point is that since Paul uses soophronos about both sexes sensible is probably the best translation into current 21ST century English?

Thoughts on Soophronein and a freebie

#soophronein #deviantart #wordstudy

First an Announcement you can download the file below and other experiments with greek typography from my DEVIANT ART GALLERY

www.deviantart.com/JVartndesign/gallery

Since these are freebies please consider using the paypal link above right or supporting me via Patreon or a visit to my Amazon wishlists ? 

Okay back to the word study.

Soophronein / soophroneoo  is a fairly common verb used by the major and minor dramatists historians orators and philosophers in Classical and Hellenistic Greek literature and appears also in the Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament.

However NT translators use a variety of expressions to translate it into modern English.

think soberly think sensibly think / be modest 

however it actually literally means means to be safe minded soo + phron so why the modern translations.  The Greeks used this and related words to express also ideas about modesty as a virtue but the word(s) as much mean keeping yourself safe by being moderate and sensible avoiding excess.

Its moderation or commonsense expressed as sensible behaviour and thinking. 

Pauls usage of soophronein in Romans 2:3 is a good example of this as he contrasts thinking and thinkly safely / sensibly with hyperphronein.

He also uses it in his letters to Titus in chapter 2 and to Timothy 1 Tim 2:9 and 2:15.

Its wide usage I hope supports my belief NT scholars should read the Classics and vice versa!?

soophronein

#soophronein 

This weeks theme is Soophronein ... look up Romans 12:3 and come be for the next post !

Hera the Crowned Goddess

HERA the CROWNED GODDESS

#Hera #goddess #poloscrown

One of the distinguishing features of Hera in many Classical Greek artworks is the "polos" crown.

It seems to have been some kind of cap or hat imitating images from Near Eastern art or possibly some kind of flat band or ring probably made of felt or leather since no metal versions survive?

However looking at this example on a coin perhaps they were metal and simply havn't survived because they were melted down?

Here's another example

Roman era copies of Greek works also suggest they were metal and perhaps the precursors of diadems?  

Yet actual human queens are not depicted wearing them ! 

A topic for the near future !