Lk 18:13; TWi hAMARTWLWi

Clwinbery at aol.com Clwinbery at aol.com
Sun Dec 2 11:14:43 EST 2001


The net Bible translates: 
18:13 The tax collector, however, stood38 far off and would not even look up39
 to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, be merciful40 to me, sinner 
that I am!’41

Note 41 refers to Wallace and makes the point that the prayer emphasizes his 
status as a sinner. 
 I think such an interpretation depends more on the drama of the parable, the 
fact that this is the punch line of the parable, etc than the presence of the 
article in the Greek. The main thing that TWi hAMARTWLWi does in this 
sentence is put the prayer into a class of people known as sinners. He 
certainly is not claiming to be the only sinner but a member of that group 
(at least in Luke's mind) that Jesus was often accused of associating with.

Again, I think the key factor here is "identity" and Luke puts this prayer 
into a group. I am going to stop with this statement since Harry understands 
me and I do not want to start Iver speaking in linquistic tongues again.

Carlton Winbery
Louisiana College



More information about the B-Greek mailing list