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This ones a bit odd


Λύχνις Δαν

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Hi ya,

 

  Psa 127:2     τοὺς πόνους τῶν καρπῶν σου φάγεσαι·

 

  You'd expect the reverse I would have thought. Well ... I expected the reverse and so it is in Sinaiticus. Very curiously though in א it shows a correction from :

 

  Psa. 128:2  (Sin. 127:2) τουϲ  καρπουϲ των πονων  ϲου φαγεϲαι     (considered the original)
 

   to :

 

  Psa. 128:2  (Sin. 127:2) τουϲ  πονουϲ των καρπων  ϲου φαγεϲαι      (corrector a)

 

  I wonder why that would have occurred in א and why the the latter would be considered preferred in Ralhfs.

 

  English translations like ESVS, NASB etc. support "fruit of the labours", ".... of your labours" or "... labours of your hands".

  NETS however renders it :

 

   Psa. 127:2     The labors of your wrists you shall eat;

 

  Where exactly did "wrists" come from ? I can understand perhaps adding it rather like "hands" above "labours of your wrists" as opposed to "labours of your hands" but replacing "fruit", if that's what it's doing seems strange.

 

  I guess the answer stems from this in LSJ :

 

καρπός (B), ὁ, wrist, Il. 24.671, Od. 24.398, Hp. Fract. 3, Arist. HA 494a2, etc.; ἐπὶ καρπῷ Ξερός E. Ion 1009 ; καρποὶ Ξειρῶν ib. 891, cf. X. Cyr. 6.4.2. (Perh. cf. ONorse huerfa ‘turn round’.)

 

  I guess where we get carpel from.

 

  So this is cool. We have two wordings which rely of the semantic range of one word which happens to be rather convenient :

 

  Psa. 128:2  (Sin. 127:2) τουϲ  καρπουϲ των πονων  ϲου φαγεϲαι

 

  "you will eat the fruit of your labours"

 

  AND

 

  Psa. 128:2  (Sin. 127:2) τουϲ  πονουϲ των καρπων  ϲου φαγεϲαι

 

  "you will eat the labours of your wrists"      (LEH suggests "palm (of the hand)" also.)

 

  Which one can imagine as a elision of "the produce of the labours of your wrists".

 

  I still prefer א  in the apparently original form but there you go.

 

  Finally it is interesting that BDAG does not have this sense for καρπος. Perhaps that sense fell out of use by NT times.

 

  Anyhow I've worked it through now and think I get it but I toss it out there for anyone interested to comment on.

 

Thx

D

 

 

 

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Re Carpus (or carpal), yes it is from καρπός meaning wrist

 

late Middle Englishfrom modern Latin, from Greek karpos wrist.

 

And as you can see from the sources cited in LSJ - the latest source is Aristotle (4th BC)

 

So, it does seem as if the term καρπός for wrist has become archaic by the time of koine greek.

 

I am sure you saw that LEH include “wrist” as part of his gloss as well.

 

​Interesting. Greek - a living language, who’d have thought it?

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Ooops - carpal. Yes I saw LEH.

 

But I think I was off on the no longer in use in that sense. καρπος appears in modern Greek apparently in this sense.

Just not attested in the NT, BDAG or similar texts.

 

I poked about the AF and did a search for "wrist" in Texts and then pulled up the Greek in parallel. In Acts NET uses it as a translation of χειρῶν. There is one place in 1Sam 5:4 where οἱ καρποὶ τῶν χειρῶν αὐτοῦ where it is translated not unnaturally as wrists in that context.

 

It just seems a very rare use at that time. Perhaps it's just the material. Maybe fell out of favour for a while and then came back ? Maybe overwhelmed by the biblical sense of "fruit" or "produce".

 

Here's another interesting LXX example :

 

“χεῖρας δὲ αὐτῆς διήνοιξεν πένητι, καρπὸν δὲ ἐξέτεινεν πτωχῷ.”
( 31:20 Greek Septuagint)

 

“And she opens her hands to the needy and reaches out her wrist to the poor.”
( 31:20 A New English Translation Of The Septuagint)

 

Here LEHs "palm" is interesting.

 

Thx

D

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