Luke 3:5 ἔσται τὰ σκολιὰ εἰς εὐθεῖαν

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Stephen Hughes
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Luke 3:5 ἔσται τὰ σκολιὰ εἰς εὐθεῖαν

Post by Stephen Hughes »

Luke 3:5 wrote:Πᾶσα φάραγξ πληρωθήσεται, καὶ πᾶν ὄρος καὶ βουνὸς ταπεινωθήσεται· καὶ ἔσται τὰ σκολιὰ εἰς εὐθεῖαν, καὶ αἱ τραχεῖαι εἰς ὁδοὺς λείας·
(ἔσονται) αἱ τραχεῖαι εἰς ὁδοὺς λείας has some sort of grammatical agreement. The second εἰς is being used to say what different adjective now characterises the road (i.e. it will change), but the agreement doesn't work in the first phrase; καὶ ἔσται τὰ σκολιὰ εἰς εὐθεῖαν.

Basically the question is; Why is εὐθεῖαν a feminine singular here? Is it an adjective or a substantivised form?

The possibilities I can find / imagine are;
  • There is some sort of understood opposite to σκολιότης to be understood with the adjective (An abstract word) - this is unlikely given the genre,
  • After LSJ the εὐθεῖα has the meaning "straight line" (i.e. there is an understood γραμμή), i.e. is the first εἰς being used as the benchmark by which the road is measured
  • After BDAG there is an understood ῥύμη "street" to be read here.
Γελᾷ δ' ὁ μωρός, κἄν τι μὴ γέλοιον ᾖ
(Menander, Γνῶμαι μονόστιχοι 108)
Stephen Carlson
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Re: Luke 3:5 ἔσται τὰ σκολιὰ εἰς εὐθεῖαν

Post by Stephen Carlson »

It's a quotation of Isa 40:4 LXX, with the same issue. One should consult the Hebrew Vorlage.
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
Melbourne, Australia
Stephen Hughes
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Joined: February 26th, 2013, 7:12 am

Re: Luke 3:5 ἔσται τὰ σκολιὰ εἰς εὐθεῖαν

Post by Stephen Hughes »

Stephen Carlson wrote:It's a quotation of Isa 40:4 LXX, with the same issue. One should consult the Hebrew Vorlage.
I expect that there were a range of responses to the Greek. Speaking only from personal experience - and of course it would be better if i knew the experiences of others before spraking - of listening to English my references to the Greek Vorlage of the New Testament depend on my familiarity with the text. For those verses, sections and chapters I've memorised I follow from key word to key (during sermons etc.)word not all the grammar. Those phrases and sections I've been through very closely intellectually, with my emotions and relating the Greek to my body in action and meaning, the Greek grammar speaks louder than the English or Chinese that I'm hearing.

I think that that might be a perfectly human set of reactions. I guess it would apply to the Hebrew Vorlage too, I.e. that if someone had memorised and internalised that text in Isaiah, they would refer to the Vorlage. My first instict presumption is that OT quotes in the NT are probably not obscure/unkown ones. Of course that's an assumption, but it does tend to suggest that what you say about referring to the Vorlage is probably a good idea, at least to replicate the experience of some listeners / readers.
Γελᾷ δ' ὁ μωρός, κἄν τι μὴ γέλοιον ᾖ
(Menander, Γνῶμαι μονόστιχοι 108)
Stephen Hughes
Posts: 3323
Joined: February 26th, 2013, 7:12 am

Re: Luke 3:5 ἔσται τὰ σκολιὰ εἰς εὐθεῖαν

Post by Stephen Hughes »

Stephen Carlson wrote:It's a quotation of Isa 40:4 LXX, with the same issue. One should consult the Hebrew Vorlage.
Despite topping my class in Hebrew both times, please take what I'm about to say with the caution that you would afford to a beginner making a comment about a foreign language which I only related to through the English medium.
Isaiah 40:4 wrote:וְהָיָ֤ה הֶֽעָקֹב֙ לְמִישֹׁ֔ור וְהָרְכָסִ֖ים לְבִקְעָֽה
Isaiah 40:4 wrote:καὶ ἔσται τὰ σκολιὰ εἰς εὐθεῖαν, καὶ αἱ τραχεῖαι εἰς ὁδοὺς λείας·
Besides the addition of the τὰ, it seems that the word-class distinctions of the Hebrew have been preserved in the Greek - ἡ τραχεία is common for a rough road and εὐθεῖα has the two possibilities (sc. ῥύμη BDAG or γραμμή LSJ) I mentioned above. If my observation of the pattern of what is happening is correct, then εὐθεῖα is nominal rendering of מִישֹׁ֔ור because מִישֹׁ֔ור is a noun in the Hebrew Vorlage.

Caterpillars do bend their bodies up into crooked shapes and then straighten them out to move forward, so perhaps there is not much difference between the Hebrew and Greek if the τὰ σκολιὰ is taken as vertical crookedness, rather than the horizontal that I have hitherto afore assumed it was referring to. The εἰς εὐθεῖαν would likely mean one's eyes could follow it without moving up and down - in one straight line. I'm not sure if that is idiomatic Greek.
Γελᾷ δ' ὁ μωρός, κἄν τι μὴ γέλοιον ᾖ
(Menander, Γνῶμαι μονόστιχοι 108)
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