9/22/2023 0 Comments Rack my brain wrack my brainWords based on the root ζώνη ‘belt’, in particular, ζώννυμι, ‘tie smthg around the waist’ were all over in Greek from Classical times. The NT uses are about the waist, and tying things around the waist. We have no single word in English - there are plenty of translator’s lessons here - and we’ve been focused on the groin contexts. The mistake in the discussion here has been to focus on the ‘loins’ word, ὀσφῦς, which we’ve mostly mistranslated because it covers waist, hips, and groin. Of that, I think there is little question. (The metaphor is about “wrecking” your brain, i.e., rendering it useless, not stretching it painfully.) The problem is to determine if the metaphor was “live”. Even highly educated native speakers misunderstand them. There are archaic words lying around everywhere in fixed expressions. See the definitions here.īut in a way, this only makes your point stronger. Wrack is a now otherwise obsolete word related to wreak as in wreak havoc and wreck, esp. I hope this doesn’t come across too critical, but the expression is wrack one’s brains. If I’ve made any glaring errors I’ll accept the tongue-lashing I have earned. But as for myself I need to put my nose to the grindstone before I’m accused of being a lame brain by my slave driver boss. I’d like to pick your brains now and see what other examples of extended metaphors you can cook up in 1 Peter. Reading 1 Peter 1:13 in the context of the whole letter suggests interconnections between this verse and others in the letter and also guides me in how I might choose to translate this verse in the light of the overall themes that Peter is developing. If we accept the proposition that the two images in 1 Peter are consciously related it would be a mistake to explain away the metaphors or to replace them with equivalent metaphors in English that do not reinforce the militaristic theme that Peter seems to be playing with here. pastoral create an extended meditation by Peter on the difference between Roman authoritianism and Christian humility. The collision of these two cultures, urban vs. And it is contrasted with very homely images from the Galilean countryside. In fact imagery from Roman culture permeates this book. The phrase ὑμεῖς τὴν αὐτὴν ἔννοιαν ὁπλίσασθε, seems to have a close affinity with the phrase in 1 Peter 1:13 and indicates to me that Peter was possibly using military imagery from the Roman empire in his letter in an intentional way. Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. I noticed it this morning while listening to 1 Peter in NIV. While it’s a good option, I don’t think it’s the best option simply for the reason that the metaphor Peter uses here is part of an extended metaphor or at the very least a leitmotif that is threaded throughout this letter. One option is to replace the metaphor with a metaphor having a similar meaning in English and call that good. However, and this is a biggie, we shouldn’t make the opposite error of assuming that the metaphor was essentially dead and there is no need to worry about it at all. It was a metaphor that over time became semantically bleached until it added just a bit of literary color to speech without necessarily calling to mind the image itself. I suspect that “gird the loins of your mind” in Peter’s Greek is an analogous situation to “rack your brains” in modern English. Otherwise we would just say something like, “I’ve been trying without success to think of something.” Now on one hand this illustrates the danger of reading a dead metaphor in the original language as being alive. Still, the meaning exists somewhere in the background and gives a little oompf to our speech. It has its origins in medieval torture chambers but I don’t think most people necessarily have an image of a person or a brain stretched out on a torture rack every time they use that expression. “Rack your brain” is one such case in English. Much like the metaphorical language in the title of this post it is possible to use a metaphor without necessarily calling to mind a very active image represented by that metaphor. My first inclination was that it was a dead metaphor. I’ve been wondering whether “gird your loins” was a live metaphor or a dead metaphor. I enjoyed yesterday’s discussion of the expression “gird the loins of your mind” in 1 Peter 1.
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