PHSEELY@aol.com wrote:
> Allan wrote:
>
> << A question that has come up with a correspondent is whether there is any
> possibility that Paul could have had science in mind when writing that. Was
> there a different Greek word meaning "science" (to the limited extent that
> science existed at the time) that would have been used had Paul meant that?
> If so, it would seem to rule out nearly 100% any idea that Paul was warning
> Timothy against falsehood specifically in the guise of science. Not that
> that seems very likely anyway, but some people have had "science falsely
> so-called" drilled into their heads for so many years that it is hard for
> them to read it any other way. >>
>
> Where the NT Greek has the word gnoseos (long o's), the Vulgate in every case
> but one has a form of scientia, and in the KJV in every case the translation
> is "knowledge" except in 1 Tim 6:20. [the other instances are Luke 11:52;
> Rom 2:20; 11:33; 15:14; I Cor 12:8; 2 Cor 2:14 (Vulgate has notitia); 4:6;
> 10:5; Eph 3:19; Phil 3:8; Col 2:3]
>
> The KJV translation seems to go back to Tyndale, who also translates gnoseos
> "knowledge" everywhere but in 1 Tim 6:20. This translation passed on to the
> Cranmer's and Geneva Bibles, and presumably to the KJV although no one knows
> for sure why they translated it that way. Tyndale seems to have had in mind
> Roman Catholic scholastic theology when he used the word "science" as this is
> the meaning he gives to 1 Tim 6:20 elsewhere (Supper of the Lord, 3:284).
>
> Since there is no contextual reason in 1 Tim 6:20 to change from "knowledge"
> to "science" as a translation of gnoseos (nominative gnosis, long o); and, in
> fact, proto-Gnostics, may well have been in view, "Knowledge" would have been
> a better translation. At the same time we should recognize that "science" in
> 1611 was a synonym for "knowledge."
>
> Ancient Greek does not have a word exclusively for "science" , but episteme
> (last two e's are long, ie eta's) also meaning "knowledge", "understanding",
> was in ancient times (and yet today) the normal word used to refer to
> scientific understanding, or science. See
> www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/lexindex?lookup=e)pisth/mh&lang=Greek
>
> There is no evidence that gnosis, gnoseos, was used to refer to science.
>
For what it's worth -
In almost all the NT cases Paul lists, Luther translates gnoseos with
Erkenntnis, "knowledge."
(In Eph.3:19 the structure of his translation is a little different & he uses the
related verb erkennen while in Rom.3:20 he does a similar thing but with the verb
wissen, "to know", from which Wissenschaft, the German word used for "science" in
a sense broader than modern English.)
However, in I Tim.6:20 gnoseos is translated with Kunst, which means
"art" or "skill." But it can also have the sense of "trick" or
"sleight-of-hand." It may be these latter connotations which seemed most
appropriate for the false "knowledge" spoken of in this verse.
Shalom,
George
George L. Murphy
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
"The Science-Theology Dialogue"
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