Saturday, February 6, 2021

A flat or bemused tolerance, as it were, but no fraternal correction

"The emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) gives a similar instruction on how to deal with someone who behaves rudely in the gymnasium:  'We keep an eye on him, not though as an enemy  nor from suspicion of him but with good-humored avoidance [(καίτοι φυλαττόμεθα, οὐ μέντοι ὡς ἐχθρόν οὐδὲ μεθ' ὑποψίας, ἀλλ' ἐκκλίσεως εὐμενοῦς)]' (Med. 6.20).  Unlike Paul, however, Aurelius demonstrates no interest in the reform of this offensive person and 'recognizes no duty of remonstrance towards the offender ὡς ἀδελφόν' ([as a brother; ]Moffatt 1901)."

     Jeffrey A. D. Weima on 2 Thess 3:6-15, 1-2 Thessalonians, Baker exegetical commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI:  Baker Academic, 2014), 627, but without Weima’s transliteration and more of the Greek (which I have taken from pp. 140-141 of the 1916 LCL edition ed. and trans. Haines).  Underscoring and boldface mine.
     Marcus Aurelius is invoking the dirty competitor figuratively:  "Act much in the same way in all the other parts of life.  Let us make many allowances for our fellow-athletes as it were.  Avoidance is always possible [(
ἔξεστι . . . ἐκκλίνειν)], as I have said, without suspicion or hatred."
     And so a flat or bemused tolerance, as it were, but no fraternal correction.

No comments: