Second Plural

Maurice A. O'Sullivan mauros at iol.ie
Tue Mar 6 14:49:47 EST 2001


At 17:03 06/03/01, Jim Darden wrote:

>Does anyone know of a scripture reference where the second plural is so 
>ambiguous when translated into English (excluding the KJV) that the 
>referent is easily confused?

Jim:
Does the story of the mother of the sons of Zebedee ( Mt. 20:20 ) meet your 
criterion?

In the English of the RSV
 >>  20:20   Then the mother of the sons of Zeb'edee came up to him, with 
her  sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something.  20:21 And 
he said to her, "What do you want?" She said to him, "Command that  these 
two sons of mine may sit, one at your right hand and one at your  left, in 
your kingdom."  20:22 But Jesus answered, "You do not know what you are 
asking. Are you able  to drink the cup that I am to drink?" They said to 
him, "We are able."  <<
In v.22, "you"  is ambiguous, is it the mother or the sons Jesus is 
addressing? In the Greek it is immediately clear from OUK OIDATE that it is 
the sons, but in English this is only made clear when it is established 
that "they" said to him.


Maurice A. O'Sullivan  [ Bray, Ireland ]
mauros at iol.ie






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