First question

Harold R. Holmyard III hholmyard at ont.com
Mon May 8 15:56:24 EDT 2000


Dear B. J.,
     Thanks for the question. You write about Mark 3:29:

>Note that ìwhoeverî (OS Dí AN) refers to those in verse 28 whose sins and
>blasphemies will be forgiven. That is, all ìotherî sins and blasphemies
>will be forgiven; verse 29 identifies, therefore, the only exception to
>the blasphemies of verse 28.

No, hOS D' AN refers to the person who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit.

You ask:

>Regarding: OUK ECEI AFESIN
>
>Issue: who or what has no forgiveness?

The person who blasphemes has no forgiveness.

>I am looking for syntactical considerations that would preclude my
>translating OUK ECEI AFESIN as ìit (the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit) has
>no forgiveness. I think that most take this to be ìhe has no forgiveness.
>Would this translation (it) be forced or awkward? Are there any
>syntactical indicators that would suggest ìheî as the more likely reading,
>as opposed to ìit?

Really, in verse 29 one can regard all the words preceding the verb OUK
ECEI as a relative clause subject of ECEI. So hOS is also the subject of
ECEI.

				Yours,
				Harold Holmyard






More information about the B-Greek mailing list