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The Harpagmos Enigma: A Philological Solution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

Roy W. Hoover
Affiliation:
Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington 99362

Extract

Modern discussion of the enigmatic οὐχ ⋯ρπαγμ⋯ν ⋯γ⋯σατο τ⋯ εἶναι ἶσα θεῷ of Phil. 2:6 received its most significant contribution from Werner Jaeger in a notable article published half a century ago. Jaeger contended that this much-disputed phrase belongs to a cluster of idiomatic expressions in which literal notions of robbery or violent seizure are not present. These idiomatic expressions feature double accusative constructions in which ἃρπαγμα as well as ἒρμαιον,εὔρημα and εὐτύχημα regularly appear with such verbs as ⋯γείσθαι,ποιείσθαι and τίθεσθαι with the meaning, ”to regard something as a stroke of luck, a windfall, a piece of good fortune,” etc.2 When it occurs in such a construction ἃρπαγμα is to be understood as a synonym of the above-mentioned nouns (”Studie,” pp. 548-49)—a judgment which Jaeger believed is most patently indicated in Heliodorus, Aethiopica VII.20, since there both ἅρπαγμα and ⋯ρμαιον occur in the same phrase: οὐχ ἃραγμα οὐδ⋯ ἒρμαιον ποιείται τ⋯ πράγμα

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1971

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