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.
Paul
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