Свідок і мученик : до семантичного аналізу поняття ΜΆΡΤΥΣ
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Date
2016
Authors
Сігов, Олексій
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Abstract
Статтю присвячено аналізу семантичної еволюції грецького слова μάρτυς, яке, з одного боку, мало фундаментальне значення для становлення античної правової концепції свідчення, а з іншого боку стало вираженням ранньохристиянської концепції мучеництва. Дослідження цих двох семантичних полюсів дозволяє окреслити подвійну природу свідчення в його сучасному слововжитку, яке поєднує принцип інформативності із принципом подієвості.
Description
This article presents an analysis of the semantic evolution of the Greek word μάρτυς, which was fundamental for the formation of the legal concept of testimony in Ancient Greece and at the same time became an expression of the early Christian phenomenon of martyrdom. The study of these two semantic poles allows to define the dual nature of the testimony in its modern connotations that combine the principle of informativity with the principle of eventuality.
The semantic analysis allows to distinguish testimony as a technical term and as a term which fixes a new aspect of the reality. In the first case, it is a paradigmatic juridical concept: the testimony helps to clarify a certain fact and guarantees its authenticity by incorporating it in a pre-determined objective context. In the Ancient Greece μαρτυρία (testimony) was a key form of providing accurate information to the court. The authenticity of the fact depended from its conformity to the principle of causality. Therefore testimony had an informative function and at the same time a function of objectification: naming the fact meant including it in a cause-effect relationship.
During the early Christian period the notion of μαρτυρία took on a new meaning — that of martyrdom — which gradually revealed a new specific feature of the testimony. The testimony has an «evential» essence, and so the reality has. Not only the testimony gives a sense to a fact (by including it in an existing semantic context), it is also changes the context in the light of its exposure to the event. In its evential dimension the testimony ceases to be a passive form or an articulation of an external meaning. The testimony itself becomes an event, an integral factor of creating sense. So the event of testifying is not limited to the expression of a fact: it also seeks attention to the specificity of the moment (or of the context) in which the testimony is given. This event involves the testifying agent as far as the essence of its testimony becomes performative. Taken from the Greek the word μάρτυς (witness) changed its signification in the Latin tradition, as it started to indicate the figure of the martyr. It is notable that along with the Christian phenomenon of martyrdom the Jewish tradition revealed a similar phenomenon — that of kedoshim (קְדֹשִׁים), which means the «holy ones» and indicates the persons who gave their lives for the sanctification of the Name of God. In both cases the dominant trait of the phenomenon is religious, which shifts significantly the focus on the essence of the testimony: the witness’s vocation is not to provide new information but to incarnate an event. Therefore, the key virtue of the Christian martyrdom is not a courageous acceptance of persecution but a willingness to become a living affirmation of the truth.
Keywords
witness, martyr, apostle, kedoshim, event, свідок, мученик, апостол, кедошим, подія
Citation
Сігов, О. К. Свідок і мученик : до семантичного аналізу поняття ΜΆΡΤΥΣ / Сігов О. К. // Мова : класичне - модерне - постмодерне : збірник наукових праць. - 2016. - Вип. 2. - С. 189-204.