Actually, even in Greek, νόμος's first meaning in the Classical lexica is "use, usage, custom, tradition" (Brill's Dictionary of Ancient Greek, p. 1406); LSJ has " that which is in habitual practice, use or possession" (p. 1180) as its base meaning. And BDAG starts out his entry saying "A special semantic problem for modern readers encountering the term ν. is the general tendency to confine the usage of the term ‘law’ to codified statutes. Such limitation has led to much fruitless debate in the history of NT interpretation" (677). The real problem starts with the Latin, with the heavy codification and punishment aspects of lex, which then leads into the penance aspects.
Thanks for the comment, James; this is quite helpful, too.
Perhaps I should have said something like "A funny thing happened on the way from the pre-Latin (or ancient) world on the way to Medieval and modern biblical interpretation." I'm at the point where I almost think "law" is an unhelpful translation in general for the Hebrew and Greek words, given the connotations we all cannot help but feel with "law."
I heartily agree about the translation as "law," which is one reason I like the Common English Bible. They translate torah as "instruction." Unfortunately, in the NT, they still translate nomos as "law." I wish there were a better translation for nomos, but I can't think of one—and by NT times, nomos was moving toward lex, which only complicates things further : (
Actually, even in Greek, νόμος's first meaning in the Classical lexica is "use, usage, custom, tradition" (Brill's Dictionary of Ancient Greek, p. 1406); LSJ has " that which is in habitual practice, use or possession" (p. 1180) as its base meaning. And BDAG starts out his entry saying "A special semantic problem for modern readers encountering the term ν. is the general tendency to confine the usage of the term ‘law’ to codified statutes. Such limitation has led to much fruitless debate in the history of NT interpretation" (677). The real problem starts with the Latin, with the heavy codification and punishment aspects of lex, which then leads into the penance aspects.
James
Thanks for the comment, James; this is quite helpful, too.
Perhaps I should have said something like "A funny thing happened on the way from the pre-Latin (or ancient) world on the way to Medieval and modern biblical interpretation." I'm at the point where I almost think "law" is an unhelpful translation in general for the Hebrew and Greek words, given the connotations we all cannot help but feel with "law."
I heartily agree about the translation as "law," which is one reason I like the Common English Bible. They translate torah as "instruction." Unfortunately, in the NT, they still translate nomos as "law." I wish there were a better translation for nomos, but I can't think of one—and by NT times, nomos was moving toward lex, which only complicates things further : (