Visigothic identity of Spain

[ualarauans]

Hi Michael,

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, Michael Erwin <merwin at ...> wrote:
>
> Only one minor point: the Skeireins reads "... ni ibna nih 
galeiks ..."

Yes, in 1:2, but have a look at 5:7 and 5:9. Let¡¯s see the context:

1:2 inuh ¬ðis qam gamains allaize nasjands, allaize frawaurhtins 
afhrainjan, ni ibna nih galeiks unsarai garaihtein, ak silba 
garaihtei wisands, ei, gasaljands sik faur uns hunsl jas-sau¬ð guda, 
¬ðizos manasedais gawaurhtedi uslunein.

¡°therefore came the Savior common to all, to clear all of their 
sins, neither equal (ibna) nor similar (galeiks) to our 
righteousness, but being righteousness himself, so that through 
surrendering himself for us as a sacrifice and an offering to God he 
would create a redemption of the mankind¡±.

As I understand it, the author here doesn¡¯t deal with the 
subordinative relations between distinct persons of the Trinity, but 
he wants to say that the mankind did not deserve the self-sacrifice 
of Christ, whose ¡°righteousness¡± was far greater than the human one. 
So, his self-sacrifice was not caused by merits of mankind, but came 
from the divine compassion. Probably, he uses the words ¡°equal¡± 
and ¡°similar¡± because he was a theologist experienced in debates 
with the Nicene, when these words were always used as antitheses and 
formed a kind of antonymic cluster in rhetorics. Here, he who always 
told that the Son is NOT equal, BUT only similar to the Father, 
tries to emphasize that our human righteousness is EVEN not similar, 
let alone equal, to the righteousness of Christ.

What we have of the chapter 5 left is all dedicated to the subject 
of Father-Son relation. It culminates in 5:7-9:

7 skulum nu allai weis at swaleikai jah swa bairhtai insahtai guda 
unbauranamma andsaljan sweri¬ða jah ainabaura sunau gudis gu¬ð wisan 
anakunnan, ei¬ðan galaubjandans sweri¬ða ju hva¬ðaramme usgibaima bi 
wair¬ðidai; unte ¬ðata qi¬ðano: ¡°ei allai sweraina sunu, swaswe swerand 
attan¡±, ni ibnon ak galeika sweri¬ða usgiban uns laisei¬ð. 8 jah silba 
nasjands bi siponjans bidjands du attin qa¬ð: ¡°ei frijos ins, swaswe 
frijos mik¡±. 9 ni ibnaleika frija¬ðwa ak galeika ©­airh ©­ata 
ustaiknei¬ð.

¡°Now having such and so clear explication we all should pay 
reverence to unborn God and read that the one-begotten Son of God is 
God [himself], wherefore believing that we pay proper reverence to 
each of them [both]; because the said [passage] ¡°so that all would 
honor the Son as much as (swaswe) they honor the Father¡± teaches us 
to pay [the Son] NOT equal (ibnon), BUT similar (galeika) reverence. 
And the Savior himself, when praying to the Father for the 
disciples, said: ¡°...that you would love them as much as (swaswe) 
you love me¡±. In saying so he points out NOT an equal (ibnaleika) 
love, BUT a similar (galeika)¡±.

I¡¯m afraid my clumsy translation can in no way contribute to 
the ¡°clear explication¡± of this very complicated matter (is there a 
good English version on the web?), yet one is perhaps clear that the 
author seems to derive his idea of ¡°not equal but similar¡± from the 
comparative conjunction swaswe, literally ¡°so as¡±, in the NT text. 
It¡¯s interesting to know whether this was a purely Gothic thought, 
or borrowed from some Greek source. In the first case it would add 
to our understanding of the semantics of the conjunction and 
demonstrate that there was already a Gothic school of theology which 
based its exegetic statements on the analysis of own language and 
Bible translation.

Ualarauans




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