The third word in this group is ‘tupos’, the most common of them all, both in Classical Greek, where it has a bewildering number of different meanings, and in the NT, where it occurs 15 times in 5 different senses, encroaching on territory occupied by both ‘skia’ and ‘hupodeigma’. It is derived from the verb ‘tupto’, to ‘hit’, and at its simplest it means ‘the result of a hit’, and so a ‘wound’, or ‘imprint’ or ‘indentation’. It is used twice in this sense in John 20.25, where Thomas says that he will not believe that Jesus has risen from the dead unless “I see in his hands the imprint of the nails, and thrust my finger into their imprint”. From there, ‘tupos’ came to mean a ‘mould’, into which molten metal could be poured, and so to mean principally the product of such a process, a ‘figure’, or ‘statue’ and so an ‘idol’. Thus Stephen’s speech in Acts 7 provides us with a nice irony, as well as another juxtaposition with ‘skene’. Quoting Amos 5.25-7 (from the LXX), he says: “You, house of Israel, took up the tabernacle (‘skene’) of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, the idols (‘tupos’) you made so as to worship them” (43). Heathen gods, too, apparently, had their tabernacles, portable shrines in which their idols could be carried into battle; so to take up and fight, even if only metaphorically, under the banner of another god was an act of terrible treachery. Stephen underlines the treachery, and the irony, in the next verse, bringing these two words together again, this time in their ‘Hebrews’ sense: “Our fathers had the tent of witness” (i.e. the Tabernacle) “in the wilderness, just as the one who spoke to Moses instructed him to make it according to the model (‘tupos’) he had seen”. A ‘model’ easily becomes an ‘outline’ or pattern’. Luke does not, it seems, know the exact wording of the letter sent by the garrison commander at Jerusalem – Claudius Lysias – to the Roman governor Felix about Paul, but he gives a ‘tupos’, an outline, or ‘the general impression’ (Acts 23. 25-30). And, likewise, Paul referred to the ‘pattern’ of teaching which the Roman church obeyed (Romans 6.17). This suggests something rather like a ‘paradigm’, an outline of the basic truths of the gospel which each individual teacher could expound in his own way.
Saturday, 17 December 2011
SKENE 8 (c) 'tupos' i
The third word in this group is ‘tupos’, the most common of them all, both in Classical Greek, where it has a bewildering number of different meanings, and in the NT, where it occurs 15 times in 5 different senses, encroaching on territory occupied by both ‘skia’ and ‘hupodeigma’. It is derived from the verb ‘tupto’, to ‘hit’, and at its simplest it means ‘the result of a hit’, and so a ‘wound’, or ‘imprint’ or ‘indentation’. It is used twice in this sense in John 20.25, where Thomas says that he will not believe that Jesus has risen from the dead unless “I see in his hands the imprint of the nails, and thrust my finger into their imprint”. From there, ‘tupos’ came to mean a ‘mould’, into which molten metal could be poured, and so to mean principally the product of such a process, a ‘figure’, or ‘statue’ and so an ‘idol’. Thus Stephen’s speech in Acts 7 provides us with a nice irony, as well as another juxtaposition with ‘skene’. Quoting Amos 5.25-7 (from the LXX), he says: “You, house of Israel, took up the tabernacle (‘skene’) of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, the idols (‘tupos’) you made so as to worship them” (43). Heathen gods, too, apparently, had their tabernacles, portable shrines in which their idols could be carried into battle; so to take up and fight, even if only metaphorically, under the banner of another god was an act of terrible treachery. Stephen underlines the treachery, and the irony, in the next verse, bringing these two words together again, this time in their ‘Hebrews’ sense: “Our fathers had the tent of witness” (i.e. the Tabernacle) “in the wilderness, just as the one who spoke to Moses instructed him to make it according to the model (‘tupos’) he had seen”. A ‘model’ easily becomes an ‘outline’ or pattern’. Luke does not, it seems, know the exact wording of the letter sent by the garrison commander at Jerusalem – Claudius Lysias – to the Roman governor Felix about Paul, but he gives a ‘tupos’, an outline, or ‘the general impression’ (Acts 23. 25-30). And, likewise, Paul referred to the ‘pattern’ of teaching which the Roman church obeyed (Romans 6.17). This suggests something rather like a ‘paradigm’, an outline of the basic truths of the gospel which each individual teacher could expound in his own way.
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