Grudem and Aner

In all seriousness, it has crossed my mind that someone is playing a joke on me. I have considered on the other hand that the pages for the Greek letter alpha may be entirely missing from Wayne Grudem's Liddell-Scott. I have even asked myself if we should take up a collection to buy him a new one.

Ultimately I have decided to apply for a position as Wayne Grudem's research assistant - where I would receive minimum visibility and recognition, of course, as God has properly ordained for women.

This would at least ensure, however, that I would receive some slight remuneration, commensurate with my lack of order and prominence, of course, for my research, which would not be not negligible, since I would have to develop an excel spreadsheet and correction date timeline for many inaccuracies - well, maybe not 4000 - but a lot, nonetheless. It would be a very challenging position.

Wayne Grudem has written here pp. 48, 51,

Liddell-Scott: The standard reference work, the Liddell-Scott Lexicon (p. 138) for all of ancient Greek, gives no meaning “person,” but only “man, husband,” and some specific variations on those. This is very significant because aner is not a rare word: it is extremely common in Greek. Thousands upon thousands of examples of it are found in Greek from the 8th century BC (Homer) onward. If any meaning “person” existed, scholars likely would have found clear examples centuries ago. ...

If substantial evidence is forthcoming, I would be happy to change my understanding of plural andres, and I recognize that there may be such evidence that I have not yet seen, especially with regard to fixed idioms such as “men of Athens,” etc. (In any case the CSG allow for unusual exceptions in certain cases.) But I have not yet seen clear evidence that this is the case. So I cannot at this point agree with the claim on the TNIV web site that aner “was occasionally used as a generic term for human beings.”

I note that he states that he would be happy to change his understanding of ανδρες give evidence. Considering the following evidence provided by the Liddell-Scott does anyone think that he could be convinced to change his mind regarding the plural of aner?

1. ανδρες as 'people'

αὐτὸς δ', ἀργυρότοξε, ἄναξ ἑκατηβόλ' Ἄπολλον,
ἄλλοτε μέν τ' ἐπὶ Κύνθου ἐβήσαο παιπαλόεντος,
ἄλλοτε δ' ἂν νήσους τε καὶ ἀνέρας ἠλάσκαζες.

And you, O lord Apollo, god of the silver bow,
shooting afar, now walked on craggy Cynthus,
and now kept wandering about the islands and the people in them. Homeric Hymns 3.142

2. ανδρες as 'race of men', which I note refers to human beings of both sex.

καὶ ἡμιθέων* γένος ἀνδρῶν

and the race of men half-divine Iliad 12:23

3. ανδρες as 'mankind'

ἐξ οὗ Κενταύροισι καὶ ἀνδράσι νεῖκος ἐτύχθη

From hence the feud arose between the centaurs and mankind; Odyssey 21:303

4. ανδρες as 'men' generic

τὴν δ' ἠμείβετ' ἔπειτα πατὴρ ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε:

In answer to her spoke the father of men and gods:

5. ανδρες as 'men' with the same referent as 'people'

ἀκίνδυνοι δ' ἀρεταὶ
οὔτε παρ' ἀνδράσιν* οὔτ' ἐν ναυσὶ κοίλαιςτίμιαι:
πολλοὶ δὲ μέμνανται, καλὸν εἴ τι ποναθῇ*.

But excellence without danger is honored
neither among men nor in hollow ships.
But many people remember,
if a fine thing is done with toil. Pindar Odes 6.9-12

I would like to note that scholars did find these clear examples centuries ago.

Bibliography

Henry George Liddell. Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by. Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with the assistance of. Roderick McKenzie. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1940.

Homer. The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919.

Homer. The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924.

Pindar. Odes. 1990.

The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. Homeric Hymns. Cambridge, MA.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.