The Case of Concealed Complexity
Revelation 14:3 (WH Text): καὶ ᾄδουσιν ὡς ᾠδὴν καινὴν ἐνώπιον τοῦ θρόνου καὶ
ἐνώπιον τῶν τεσσάρων ζῴων καὶ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων· καὶ οὐδεὶς ἐδύνατο μαθεῖν
τὴν ᾠδὴν εἰ μὴ αἱ ἑκατὸν τεσσεράκοντα τέσσαρες χιλιάδες, οἱ ἠγορασμένοι
ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς.
NWT 2013: "And they are singing what seems to be a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders, and no one was able to master that song except the 144,000, who have been bought from the earth."
ESV: "and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth."
Byington Bible in Living English: "And they were singing what seemed to be a
new song before the throne and before the four creatures and the aged
men; and nobody could learn the song except the hundred and forty-four
thousand who had been bought from the earth."
Maybe the NWT translation for Revelation 14:3 has been explained before, and from my experience, there is usually a good lexical basis for such renderings. From my research, most translations prefer to render ἐδύνατο μαθεῖν with "able to learn" or "could learn." However, once I started to examine this issue a little deeper, it became clear that "learn" in this context obscures certain complexities of the infinitive μαθεῖν or the lexical form, μανθάνω. Maybe this is why NWT 1984 has "learn fully" in the footnote for Revelation 14:3.
First, I will quote the BDAG comments on this Greek word and Revelation 14:3:
οὐδεὶς ἐδύνατο μαθεῖν τ. ᾠδήν no one was able to learn the song (so e.g. Bousset; Allo; REB; NRSV) Rv 14:3; others prefer the related sense understand (as Lysias 10, 15; Pla., Meno 84d, Tht. 174b, Euthyd. 277e); for mng. hear, s. 4 below.So three meanings are in play from BDAG: learn, understand, and hear, but the lexicon appears to favor "learn" or "understand"; Bill Mounce appears to like "understand, comprehend" for Rev. 14:3. Compare the Greek word μάθημα, from which we get "mathematics." My former Classics professor likes to translate μανθάνω, "to learn by inquiry."
hear οὐδεὶς ἐδύνατο μαθεῖν τ. ᾠδήν Rv 14:3 according to some this means no one was able to hear the song (Boll 18ff; Lohmeyer; Behm). But s. 1 end.—B. 1222. M-M. TW. Sv.
Abbott-Smith Greek Lexicon:
μανθάνω [in LXX chiefly for לָמַד ;]
Richard Lattimore (The New Testament) translates Revelation 14:3:
"They sing a new song before the throne and before the four animals and the elders; and none could understand the song except only the hundred and forty-four thousand who have been bought from the earth."
Louw-Nida:
Stephen Smalley (The Revelation to John, page 357):
Buist Fanning thinks μανθάνω does not denote "learn to sing and thus join in" but rather "learn and thus understand the song's significance" (Revelation, page 390 ). See 1 Corinthians 4:6.
Footnote 10 in Fanning, page 390 references Louw-Nida's Semantic Domain 32.14, and K.H. Rengstorf's entry on μανθάνω in TDNT 4:407-408. See the Aune quote below.
David Aune:
The term μανθάνειν here could mean “to learn, to be instructed” in the ordinary sense, or it could also refer to the ability “to understand,” a higher, more esoteric type of knowledge (Hadorn, 150; K. Rengstorf, TDNT 4: 407). It is possible that the second kind of “understanding” is referred to here, and if so, there is an interesting parallel in 2 Cor 12: 4 (Boll, Offenbarung, 19), where Paul claims that someone (probably referring to himself) was caught up to the third heaven and that “he heard things that cannot be told [ἄρρητα ῥήματα], which a person may not utter.” Like the 144,000, Paul heard something in heaven that was impossible or inappropriate for others to hear or understand.Aune, Dr. David. Revelation 6-16, Volume 52B (Word Biblical Commentary) (p. 903). Zondervan Academic. Kindle Edition.
Grant Osborne (Revelation) contends that the "basic meaning of μαθεῖν (mathein), to 'instruct' is "certainly intended here." He appeals to 1 Corinthians 4:6; 2 Timothy 3:7 and the "catechetical context" of Revelation 14:3.
The esoteric has always been synonymous with rulership.
ReplyDeleteLiteracy was always limited and most knowledge was sung or poetic.
https://youtu.be/sF5cnu4JpN4
A rough approximation, but the structure of Torah also lends itself to be sung.
Nehemiah 8:8. Ecclesiastes 12:9.
Lots of things to consider in your response, and it's a good point about rulership. As for literacy, we don't know the exact numbers regarding literacy in the ancient near East or in 1st century Palestine/Mediterranean area, but they were undoubtedly low. On the other hand, I've read that Jewish homes likely had higher numbers of literacy due to Torah reading and the encouragement to read in "an undertone" day and night.
ReplyDeleteHowever, as you say, knowledge was usually passed on through song, poetry, and I would add art. But the Bible discusses public reading too as mentioned in Nehemiah 8:8 (which you cite) and 1 Timothy 4:13. As you know, both Jesus and Paul read Torah in the Jewish synagogue on Sabbat.
Two things changed the overall situation with literacy: 1) the printing press; 2) the Protestant Reformation. Furthermore, there are organizations now promoting functional literacy, and their scope is international.
Nevertheless, I still wonder why mathein should be translated "master" although there's likely a good reason. I need to read the TDNT entry about this issue (volume 4).
See also 1 Chronicles 25:7
The problem is with "literacy" is how its defined (is it defined as being able to read and write decent prose, does being able to read a few passages at a time count, enough to do and read graffiti ... etc etc) and what data is actually being used, sociological models can only get one so far (that's the usual approach taken by those who say literacy was low in first century palastine).
ReplyDeleteI agree there are limits to what sociology can tell us about literacy in antiquity: I used to buck against the low numbers and common analyses of ancient literacy. I later modified my views to where I think it's generally true that the large majority of humankind could not read, for many reasons, but Judaism seems to have been exceptional in the number of people who could read even if not everyone possessed the Tanakh in their homes.
ReplyDeleteI concur that one needs to define literacy: we know that literacy operates at different levels, but a common distinction is "functional literacy."
Sciencedirect: "Functional literacy may be defined as the ability to comprehend and use communication media (Bereiter & Scardamalia 2005). It refers to the set of skills of searching, using, adapting, creating and reflectively understanding multimodal information for communication and action in daily life (Rosenblatt 1995, 2005)."
That's obviously one definition of functional literacy, which seems to extend beyond books. However, at the very least, a functionally literate person should be able to read and understand prose to some extent, even if his/her writing is not that decent. I know someone who is a great reader in terms of pronouncing words and reading with stress, modulation, etc. Yet the same person can hardly write because of a disability he has and he comprehends very little of what he reads. But I would say he is literate on some level.
For mathein in Revelation 14:3, TDNT 4:407-408 states that it could refer to "a deepened hearing." Hence, it would be differentiated from akouo.
IMO the NT text is a good guide to literacy. How many people "hear it said" (Mat 5) vs "it is written" (Mat 4). Crowds vs pharisees and others of wealth and power.
ReplyDeleteWe have the archives of Ebla & the archives of Ugarit, etc. The majority of texts are under the control of elite. By definition esoteric.
In Egypt did the majority read hieroglyphics or just look at the murals and have the text read to them at festivals?
This is similar to the modern day use of computer icons. Symbolic meta representations.
Timothy again as "man of god" would be expected to read to others.
https://www.academia.edu/52314302/The_Wordplay_%CE%BC%CE%B1%CE%B8%CE%B5%E1%BF%96%CE%BD_%CF%80%CE%B1%CE%B8%CE%B5%E1%BF%96%CE%BD_in_Hebrews_5_8
Interesting article here but I am not sure if it helps?
Overall, I agree with you that literacy was primarily an elite thing in antiquity: the numbers could not have exceeded 20% at any given time. And Egyptian hieroglyphics seem clearly to have been esoteric. In Revelation, the public reading is also mentioned and Jesus was literate.
ReplyDeleteThere is evidence from Greece as well with poetry and the performance of tragedy and comedy. See also https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/78416/more-people-were-literate-ancient-judah-we-knew
Thanks for the Hebrews link.
I think the wordplay in Hebrews is fairly established. I've come across it, in Aristotle too.
ReplyDeletehttps://equip.sbts.edu/publications/journals/journal-of-theology/suffering-in-revelation-the-fulfillment-of-the-messianic-woes/
ReplyDeleteMaybe this is why they have mastered, contextually?
Duncan, I have to work tonight, but I bookmarked the link. Also check out the 1984 NWT in Rev. 14:3. The footnote says, "learn fully." Thanks.
ReplyDeleteOn the military and literacy, this is also clearly demonstrated by the wooden splits at Vindolanda in the UK.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vindolanda_tablets
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomberg_tablets
But unlike the article on Judah, there is no claim that this literacy is wide spread.