Friday, September 12, 2008

JSOT on 'anak' in Amos 7:8

From JSOT:

Duping the Prophet: On [anak] (Amos 7.8b) and Amos's Visions*
by Tzvi Novick
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Vol. 33, No. 1, 115-128 (2008)

Conclusion

I have suggested that, after Amos intercedes to avert the destruction
portended in the first two visions, God rigs the third and fourth visions
so that the prophet will unwittingly sentence Israel, and thus preclude
himself from again intervening on their behalf. God achieves this aim
by taking advantage of the fact that Amos, while prophesying in the
north, is by origin a southerner. The wordplays in the third and fourth
visions rely on puns particularly accessible only to speakers of the
northern dialect, so that Amos can be lured into them unsuspectingly.
In line with this approach, I have interpreted [ank] in 7.8b as a dialectical
variant specific to the north, with the meaning ‘I’ or ‘sigh’. Different
versions of both interpretations have been suggested before, but, in
addition to providing a general framework that explains why [ank] on
either interpretation is otherwise unattested in Biblical Hebrew
(namely, because it is specific to the northern dialect), I have also
marshaled new arguments in support of both proposals.

continued...

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

NTS on 'arrabon' in 2 Cor. 1 and 5

From NTS:

[A]ρραβων as Pledge in Second Corinthians
Yon-Gyong Kwon
New Testament Studies (2008), 54: 525-541

Abstract

This article argues that αρραβων in 2 Corinthians (1.22 and 5.5) does not mean ‘down payment’ or ‘first installment’ but ‘pledge’ without any sense of pars pro toto. After showing that the meaning of the word depends on its context, the study goes on to examine the two occurrences of the word, concluding that Paul either appeals to the Spirit as God's pledge for his apostolicity (1.22) or as a pledge for the surety of bodily resurrection (5.5). The common view that αρραβων depicts the Spirit as the present realization of salvation is thus exegetically unfounded.