Homoiōma

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Homoiōma (ὁμοίωμα) is a Greek neuter noun for "likeness" which is particularly common in Jewish Koine Greek texts. The meaning of the word in several well-known New Testament verses is related to discussion in Christology about the relation of Christ to man.

Etymology

The noun comes from the adjective homoios, "like".[1]

Usage

Classical usage

Use of the word as "image" is relatively common in Attic texts; the use in the singular is found in Plato (Phaedra 250a) and Aristotle (Rhetorica 1356a31).[2][3] The word is found in inscriptions[4] on ostraca[5] and in the Tebtunis papyri.[6]

Septuagint usage

The word is more common in Jewish usage than pagan. It appears frequently in the Septuagint, often in relation to idols.[7][8][9][10] The term is used by Josephus in a similar way.[11] The essential contrast is between the reality of God and a homoiōma or artifice.[12] The representation may be two-dimensional such as a diagram[13] graffiti[14] or mural[15] or three-dimensional such as carvings[16] or figurines.[17] The word may also be used in a qualitative or figurative sense; men "like the son of a king",[18] daughters "adorned like a temple"[19] creatures "with the likeness of a man."[20] or, in Sirach as the likeness (homoiōma) of a face to a face.[21]

New Testament usage

The word appears 6 times in the New Testament and in the KJV is rendered "likeness" "made like to" "similitude" and "shape".[22][23] Two of these uses are fairly straightforward, following directly on from Septuagint usage - idols in the likeness of animals,[24] and locusts with the likeness of horses. Another; a sin in the likeness of Adam's sin, is understandable within secular Greek usage.[25] This leaves three other uses, one the likeness of death in Romans 6:5, two more in Paul's description of the likeness of Christ to other men.

Interpretation

The likeness of death

In Romans 6:5 Paul introduces the concept of homoiōma between Christians and Christ in a grammatical structure which, although it only employs the word once, duplicates it with a double "of his death...also [in the likeness] of his resurrection".[26]

The likeness of sinful flesh

Discussion in Christology centres on the significance of homoiōma in the writings of Paul, and in particular whether homoiōma in Romans 8:3 and Philippians 2:7 indicates a merely external or internal likeness with other men.[27] Moo (1996) in discussing Romans 8:3 maintains that Paul cannot mean that Christ had only the "appearance" of sinful flesh.[28] yet the meaning is constrained by the need to balance Paul's use of the same word in Philippians 2:7.[29]

Eucharist

In Patristic usage, and later in Greek Orthodox tradition, the concept of homoiōma, being more than just external likeness, is developed in concepts of eucharistic prayer[30] and the rite of the eucharist.[31]

References

  1. ^ omoios
  2. ^ Liddell Scott Epicur.Ep.1p.10U., Nat.11.6 : pl., Pl.Phdr.250b, Sph.266d, al. Clarendon Press. 1940.
  3. ^ 28 uses in Perseus databank
  4. ^ Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae, ed. W. Dittenberger. OGI669.52 (Egypt, 1stC A. D.)
  5. ^ O.Mich., Greek Ostraca in the University of Michigan Collection document 1101: ... /IIIspc Karanis ἀρχαῖα βυβλία καὶ ὁμοιώματα μηδὲ μηδιε διαβεβλημένων
  6. ^ document 15: ... [Ν]έρουα Τραιανοῦ Σεβαστοῦ Παχὼν εἰκάδι. #324 ἀντίγραφον ἐπιστολῆς ὁμοιώματος ομηωματος : Λαβέριος Μάξιμος Πομπηΐωι Διονυσοδώρῳ
  7. ^ Deut 4:15 And take good heed to your hearts, for ye saw no similitude (homoiōma) in the day in which the Lord spoke to you in Choreb in the mountain out of the midst of the fire: 16 lest ye transgress, and make to yourselves a carved image, any kind of figure, the likeness (homoiōma) of male or female, 17 the likeness (homoiōma) of any beast of those that are on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird which flies under heaven, 18 the likeness (homoiōma) of any reptile which creeps on the earth, the likeness of any fish of those which are in the waters under the earth;
  8. ^ Deut 5:8 Thou shalt not make to thyself an image, nor likeness (omoioma) of any thing, whatever things [are] in the heaven above, and whatever [are] in the earth beneath, and whatever [are] in the waters under the earth.
  9. ^ Josh 22:28 And we said, If ever it should come to pass that they should speak to us, or to our posterity hereafter; then shall they say, Behold the likeness (sg) of the altar of the Lord, which our fathers made, not for the sake of burnt-offerings, nor for the sake of meat-offerings, but it is a witness between you and us, and between our sons.
  10. ^ Ps106:20 and they changed their glory into the similitude (homoiōma) of a calf that feeds on grass
  11. ^ Antiquities VIII 195 Niese (or VIII.5 Whiston) And as he grew into years, and his reason became weaker by length of time, it was not sufficient to recall to his mind the institutions of his own country; so he still more and more contemned his own God, and continued to regard the gods that his marriages had introduced nay, before this happened, he sinned, and fell into an error about the observation of the laws, when he made the likenesses (ὁμοιώματα pl) of brazen oxen that supported the brazen sea, and those of lions about his own throne; for these he made, although it was not agreeable to piety so to do;
  12. ^ Isaiah 40 18 To whom have ye compared the Lord? and with what likeness (homoiōma) have ye compared him? 19 Has not the artificer made an image, or the goldsmith having melted gold, gilt it over, [and] made it a similitude (homoiōma)?
  13. ^ 2K16:10 And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tilgath-Pileser king of the Assyrians at Damascus; and he saw an altar at Damascus. And king Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest the pattern (homoiōma) of the altar, and its proportions, and all its workmanship.
  14. ^ 1 Macc 3:48 And laid open the Book of the Law, wherein the heathen had sought to paint the likenesses (homoiōmata) of their images.
  15. ^ Ezek 23:14 And she increased her fornication, and she saw men painted on the wall, likenesses of the Chaldeans painted with a pencil, 15 having variegated girdles on their loins, having also richly dyed [attire] upon their heads; all had a princely appearance, the likeness (homoiōma) of the children of the Chaldeans, of their native land.
  16. ^ 1Sa6:5 golden mice.... a likeness (homoiōma) of the mice which destroy your land
  17. ^ Song 1:11 "figures (homoiōmata pl.) of gold"
  18. ^ Jud 8:18 And he said to Zebee and Salmana, Where are the men whom ye slew in Thabor? and they said, As thou, so were they, according to the likeness (homoiōma) of the son of a king.
  19. ^ Ps144:12 whose children are as plants, strengthened in their youth: their daughters are beautiful, sumptuously adorned after the similitude (homoiōma) of a temple.
  20. ^ Ezekiel 1:5 And in the midst as it were the likeness (homoiōma) of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; the likeness (homoiōma) of a man was upon them
  21. ^ Sirach 34:2 Whoso regardeth dreams is like him that catcheth at a shadow, and followeth after the wind. 3 The vision of dreams is the resemblance of one thing to another, even as the likeness (homoiōma) of a face to a face.
  22. ^ likeness 3, made like to 1, similitude 1, shape 1.
  23. ^ J. Schneider homoiōma TDNT Abr
  24. ^ Carl B. Becker Asian and Jungian views of ethics 1999 p34 "20. The Greek word is homoioma. It suggests: to make a likeness, to become like, to experience being "like" but not ... Thus, they exchange the glory of the Lord for likeness or likening (homoioma). The "psychic" pagans worship and serve ..."
  25. ^ Brendan Byrne, Daniel J. Harrington Romans 1996 p196 "The basic sense of homoioma in biblical literature is that of "likeness." ... The occurrences of homoioma in Rom 1:23 and 5:14 seem to be instances of the first sense, without the suggestion that the resemblance is close"
  26. ^ George H. Van Kooten, Geurt Hendrik van Kooten, Paul's anthropology in context: the image of God, assimilation to ... 2008 p206 2.4.2 Homoioma between Christians and Christ "There seem to be three different aspects to the notion of homoioma between Christians and Christ. ..."
  27. ^ Gordon R. Lewis, Bruce A. Demarest Integrative Theology Zondervan 1996 p516 "We take issue with Cranfield, who claims that homoioma in Romans 8:3 and Philippians 2:7 extends to Christ's sharing of our sinful nature. Cranfield writes that we "understand Paul's thought to be that the Son of God assumed the selfsame fallen human nature that is ours, but that in this case the fallen human nature was never the whole of him — He never ceased to be the Son of God" Romans 1:381
  28. ^ Douglas J. Moo The Epistle to the Romans 1996 Page479 "In the form of sinful flesh" emphasizes the full participation of the Son in the human condition.43 ......"But why does Paul say that Christ came in "the homoioma of sinful flesh"? Certainly, in light of "in the flesh" later in this very verse, Paul cannot mean that Christ had only the "appearance" of sinful flesh.
  29. ^ Robert Jewett Paul's anthropological terms: a study of their use in conflict 1971 Page 152 "..Rom .8:3 as he did in Ph. 2:7, that God sent his son in the form of sinful flesh which means that he actually became flesh and sin. Paul cannot have meant both the identity of appearance and a difference in being by the same word.
  30. ^ Enrico Mazza, Ronald E. Lane The origins of the Eucharistic prayer 1995 p229 "The term "homoioma" is not a creation of the author of our anaphora, as Capelle has pointed out,30 but it came down ... Add. 14669, uses the Syriac "demut," which in the Syriac New Testament translates the term "homoioma" of Romans 6:5, ..."
  31. ^ Enrico Mazza The celebration of the Eucharist: the origin of the rite and the ... 1999 p140 "This bread is the figure (to homoioma) of the holy body, for (hoti) the Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, broke it, and gave it to his disciples saying: 'Take and eat, this is my body, which is broken for you for the "