A Semantic Study of αὐθέντης and its Derivatives -- By: Albert Wolters

Journal: Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
Volume: JBMW 11:1 (Spring 2006)
Article: A Semantic Study of αὐθέντης and its Derivatives
Author: Albert Wolters


A Semantic Study of αὐθέντης and its Derivatives

Albert Wolters

Professor of Religion and Theology, and Classical Studies,
Redeemer University College
Ontario, Canada

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism 1 (2000): 145-175. Reprinted here with permission.

The word αὐθέντης and its derivatives have occasioned a great deal of scholarly discussion. An initial series of studies (1909–1962) focused especially on αὐθέντης itself, and was carried out by classical scholars, notably those by J. Psichari,1 L. Gernet,2 P. Kretschmer,3 W. Kamps,4 P. Chantraine,5 A. Dihle,6 and F. Zucker.7 More recently (1979–1995), New Testament scholars have begun to show an interest in this word and its derivatives, especially in connection with the verb αὐθεντέω, which occurs in the disputed verse 1 Tim. 2.12. Noteworthy contributions have been made by C. Kroeger,8 A.J. Panning, 9 G.W. Knight III,10 L.E. Wilshire,11 A.C. Perriman,12 and H.S. Baldwin.13 The difficulty is that αὐθέντης appears to have three distinct senses in ancient Greek (‘murderer’, ‘master’, and ‘doer’), and it is a matter of dispute both how these senses are related among themselves, and how they influence the meaning of the derivatives of αὐθέντης. For New Testament scholars, the issue is whether αὐθεντέω in 1 Tim. 2.12 is based on the meaning ‘master’, thus yielding the traditional rendering ‘have authority over’ (possibly with the pejorative connotation of ‘domineering’), or whether it is semantically indebted to one or both of the other two senses of αὐθέντης.

In the present article, without focusing specifically on the one occurrence of

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