besides, who cares?

Sometimes the mind wanders down a path for no apparent reason, even pointlessly. Mine has this morning. Besides reading that the MH370 flight data recorder battery was expired, a year out of date -- which should bring down sufficient lawsuits to drive both the airline and the government that owns it insolvent -- only a stupid dee fool would fly MH after this revelation -- the mind gets into Brer Rabbit’s briarpatch of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, 1 Corithians 1:18-25 being our second reading for church this morning. The mind worries with verse 19, where Paul says “γέγραπται γάρ· Ἀπολῶ τὴν σοφίαν τῶν σοφῶν, καὶ τὴν σύνεσιν τῶν συνετῶν ἀθετήσω.’” 19 For it has been written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise ones, and I will set-aside the intelligence of the intelligent ones”. (DLNT). 

Almost any time somebody writes “For it is written” my mind worries over whether he just made that up or is it really written someplace. Sort of like when the church lectionary skips over a few verses in a prescribed reading, I go off paranoid wondering what they didn’t want me to know about and have to look it up. Last week it was Genesis 17: 1-7, 15-16 so what didn’t they want read -- well it was a bunch of stuff about circumcision and it got graphic, so okay. This week Paul cites something.

Turns out it’s from Isaiah 29:14, and he’s lifted the second half of the verse (Paul didn’t have chapter and verse markings), lifted it verbatim from the Septuagint. Paul’s NT Greek is above. The Septuagint Isaiah 29:14 LXX reads “14 διὰ τοῦτο ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ προσθήσω τοῦ μετατεθῆναι τὸν λαὸν τοῦτον καὶ μεταθήσω αὐτοὺς καὶ ἀπολῶ τὴν σοφίαν τῶν σοφῶν καὶ τὴν σύνεσιν τῶν συνετῶν κρύψω.” Okay, so why did Paul change the last word from κρύψω to ἀθετήσω. Now I have to look this up, since my Greek is sadly deficient. κρύψω is “I will hide.” ἀθετήσω is “I will frustrate.” Why the change in one single word when the meanings are really the same? I see no reason, maybe Paul’s copy of the Septuagint was slightly different, I don’t know. Besides, why would a busy person worry about this anyway, on a busy Sunday morning? God only knows. Trivial Pursuit.

TW+

Isaiah 29:14 LXX

14 διὰ τοῦτο ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ προσθήσω τοῦ μετατεθῆναι τὸν λαὸν τοῦτον καὶ μεταθήσω αὐτοὺς καὶ ἀπολῶ τὴν σοφίαν τῶν σοφῶν καὶ τὴν σύνεσιν τῶν συνετῶν κρύψω. 

14 Therefore behold I will proceed to remove this people, and I will remove them: and I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will hide the understanding of the prudent. 

1 Cor 1:19

19 γέγραπται γάρ· Ἀπολῶ τὴν σοφίαν τῶν σοφῶν, καὶ τὴν σύνεσιν τῶν συνετῶν ἀθετήσω.