Mark 7:8 & Ellipsis

Jay Adkins JAdkins264 at aol.com
Wed Mar 17 08:33:52 EST 1999


Please help me again,

As a ‘little Greek' I try and read the postings here to learn and not be 
too bothersome with every question I have.  I have submitted a couple of 
questions and your responses have been very helpful.  One was a basic 
oversight on my part, the other gave confirmation that on at least one 
verse I really did know what I was talking about.  Pointing out my error 
was helpful in preventing the same type of mistake again and the 
confirmation was very uplifting.  So Thank you very much for allowing a 
‘little Greek' such as me to participate. I have no where else to go for 
help as I am disabled and on a fixed (rather broken) income.  The Lord has 
renewed my interest in translating His Word so as to be a better teacher 
and good student.  My formal education in Greek was only two years at 
seminary twenty years ago so in addition to joining b-greek I have 
purchased several new volumes of resource material.  The only problem with 
the resource material I have is a lack of feedback, so please allow me to 
ask the b-greek another question I hope is not too basic.

Mark 7:8 (GNT) AFENTES THN ENTOLHN TOU KRATEITE THN PARADOSIN TWN ANQROPWN
The NEB translates Mark 7:8, "You neglect the commandment of God, in order 
to maintain the tradition of men."
Mark 7:8 (NASU) "Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the 
tradition of men."
Mark 7:8 (NIV) You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to 
the traditions of men."

Is it correct to add ‘in order to' between ‘God,' & ‘you' as the NEB has 
done.  When I first read this and translated it, I had inserted ‘in order 
to', then removed it after further consideration, now I am unsure which is 
best.  Bullinger does not address the verse in his book "Figures of Speech 
Used in the Bible" and I am not sure what the rules of ellipsis are, even 
after reading most of what he has to say about it.  Did I just miss it, 
then need to go back and reread it?
Many translations add the word ‘and' at this same location: NIV; NRSV; RSV; 
AMP; & TCNT.  Some add nothing at all: NASB; KJV; BBE; YLT.  In at least a 
few of these translations where nothing is added, 'in order to' seems 
almost implied.
The next verse uses ‘INA', (‘in order that') in the same context of not 
holding to God's law ‘in order that' man's traditions can be kept.  
Repetition is certainly a Hebraism and that could be what was intended 
here.  Even if we assume Mark was writing to Gentiles, there seems no 
reason to assume that he would not simply repeat some of Jesus' own 
Hebraistic phrasing when trying to record His sayings.
The fact of the matter is, I do not know the rules of the game well enough 
to play at this point.  Please help!

Jay Adkins



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