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Sunday, November 03, 2019

Greek lexicography and the death of Judas

It's common to allege that Matthew and Acts present contradictory accounts regarding the death of Judas. One issue is the meaning of πρηνής, ές in Greek. Two related observations:

1. Some words in ancient Greek are much better attested in our extant Greek sources than others. This means a number of Greek words had additional means which weren't preserved in our extant sources.

2. On a related note, our extant source of ancient Greek are random and unrepresentative. They depend on what scribes wanted to copy. They oversample of literary Greek. As a result, there's lots of Greek slang or Greek words with slang definitions  (in addition to literary definitions) because the spoken language is poorly preserved. 

So that's something we must make allowance for in debates over inerrancy and harmonization.

2 comments:

  1. In dealing with the alleged contradiction of the accounts of Judas being hung I think Millard Erickson's solution is helpful:

    Having hanged himself, Judas was not discovered for some time. In such a situation the visceral organs begin to degenerate first, causing a swelling of the abdomen characteristic of cadavers that have not been properly embalmed. And so, “swelling up [Judas] burst open in the middle and his bowels gushed out.” While there is no way of knowing whether this is what actually took place, it seems to be a workable and adequate resolution of the difficulty.” (Millard Erickson, Christian Theology, 1998, page 263.

    I know the other solution is that the rope broke and he fell, but I find the decomposition view a good argument.

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    Replies
    1. I mentioned something along those lines here:

      http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2019/10/ehrman-v-williams-rematch.html?showComment=1572232471256#c1576482773434824934

      In addition:

      http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2019/10/falling-bodies.html?showComment=1572284603529#c4228478506484873771

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