Re: Numbered/counted.

Carlton L. Winbery (winberyc@popalex1.linknet.net)
Fri, 13 Sep 1996 19:41:47 +0400

>At 4:48 PM -0500 9/12/96, John M. Moe wrote:
>>hai trixes ths kefalhs pasai hriymhmenai eisin (Matt. 10:30)
>>Does this mean they are all counted? (as in the total is a certain #)
>>Or does it mean they are numbered? (as in each one has a # assigned to it)
>>
>>Thanks.
>>John M. Moe
>>moexx016@tc.umn.edu
>>(That's all they is they aint no moe)
To which Carl Conrad wrote;
>Given the context of this passage in Mt--and its akin to that passage on
>God's providence in Mt 6--I would assume that the former explanation is
>more likely--that the exact sum of one's hairs is known (because He counted
>each one and said, "That's all they is they ain't no moe")--that the most
>intimate and trivial details of each person's identity and destiny are
>known to God and, because within His ken, not subject to peril apart from
>his knowledge and consent.
>
>Supposedly this is a comforting thought, but some anxious persons might
>very well be given cause to tremble, should they take it altogether
>seriously.
>
>
I once saw a copy of what was purported to be an old manuscript that had at
the end of this verse, DESPOTA, TIS TOUTWN hOI OUK EXOUSIN TRICAS; To
which Jesus replied, OLIGOPISTE, OU GINWSKETE hOTI KAI TOIS hUSTERHSASIN
TWN TRICWN, hH AGAPH TOU QU (QEOU) PERISSEUEI;

Is this language close to anything you have seen in the Hellenistic world?

Carlton L. Winbery
Prof. NT & Greek La College
winberyc@popalex1.linknet.net
winbery@andria.lacollege.edu