1 Thessalonians 5:22

[] EIDOS in 1 Thessalonians 5:22 Jon Boyd boyd at huxcomm.net
Thu May 1 23:57:09 EDT 2003

[] English to Greek [] EIDOS in 1 Thessalonians 5:22 Dear ers,I was just reading a book that made a big point of abstaining from all”appearance of evil” as the KVJ translates 1 Thess. 5:22. 1 Thess. 5:21-22PANTA DE DOKIMAZETE, TO KALON KATECETE, APO PANTOS EIDOUS PONHROU APECESQE.Looking at BDAG I see they have three categories for EIDOS: 1) the shape andstructure of someth. as it appears to someone, 2) a variety of someth., 3)the act of looking/seeing.BDAG lists several passages to support the sense “variety of something,”including Josephus, Ant. 10:37, which speaks of PAN EIDOS PONHRIAS.My Bibleworks copy of Louw and Nida lists two senses of EIDOS: 1) form 58.14and 2) sight 24.1. My questions: Is the second sense in BDAG legitimate, and if so why isn’t itincluded in Louw and Nida? Does anyone have any thoughts on the KJV’stranslation “appearance of evil”? Every other modern version I’ve seen goeswith “form” or “kind” of evil.Thanks,Jonathan BoydHuxley, Iowa

[] English to Greek[] EIDOS in 1 Thessalonians 5:22

[] EIDOS in 1 Thessalonians 5:22 Iver Larsen iver_larsen at sil.org
Fri May 2 01:17:55 EDT 2003

[] EIDOS in 1 Thessalonians 5:22 [] National Biblical Greek Exam (Free Trial) > I was just reading a book that made a big point of abstaining from all> “appearance of evil” as the KVJ translates 1 Thess. 5:22.> > 1 Thess. 5:21-22> PANTA DE DOKIMAZETE, TO KALON KATECETE, APO PANTOS EIDOUS PONHROU> APECESQE.> > Looking at BDAG I see they have three categories for EIDOS: 1)> the shape and> structure of someth. as it appears to someone, 2) a variety of someth., 3)> the act of looking/seeing.> > BDAG lists several passages to support the sense “variety of something,”> including Josephus, Ant. 10:37, which speaks of PAN EIDOS PONHRIAS.This must be the latest edition of BAG. My BAGD has 1) form, outwardappearance, 2) kind, 3) active seeing/sight.The gloss “a variety of something” is inaccurate and misleading, IMO. Thevariety aspect seems to come from PAS in PANTOS EIDOUS or from aspects ofthe English word “kind” that are not included in EIDOS. If so, it came aboutwhen Danker was redefining the English word “kind” using more words withoutdistinguishing carefully the various senses of “kind” in English.> > My Bibleworks copy of Louw and Nida lists two senses of EIDOS: 1)> form 58.14 and 2) sight 24.1.Yes, but their “form” in 58.14 include “appearance”. I would translate”every form of evil” which as you say is a common translation. In thecontext of “all, every” I don’t see any difference between “every kind of”and “every form of”, but that does not mean that “kind” and “form” ingeneral are synonymous, and “form” is a better gloss for EIDOS than “kind”.So, what I am saying is that 2) is dubious for the NT, but I think it isprimarily a question of English glosses and English semantics.> > My questions: Is the second sense in BDAG legitimate, and if so> why isn’t it included in Louw and Nida?I would say, no, it is not legitimate, or at least misleading.> Does anyone have any thoughts on the KJV’s translation “appearance ofevil”?I suppose we are dealing with a change in the English language as so oftenhappens when you compare the old English of the KJV with modern English. MyWebster’s give 9 senses of “appearance” of which only a few would beappropriate glosses for EIDOS today, but more may have been appropriate 400years ago. When you say “appearance of evil”, my guess is that many peoplewould think of sense 2b: “semblance”, and this sense is not part of EIDOS,and therefore the KJ rendering does not accurately communicate the Greektext in modern English.Iver Larsen

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