Lk 18:13; TWi hAMARTWLWi

Clwinbery at aol.com Clwinbery at aol.com
Tue Nov 27 20:25:12 EST 2001



In a message dated 11/27/01 4:46:08 PM, cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu writes:

>At 3:23 PM -0600 11/27/01, Paul S Dixon wrote:
>>Isn't it rather curious that translators omit the definite article here
>>and render it as though the construction were anarthrous?  Does anybody
>>know of a translation yielding "the sinner," rather than "a sinner"?
>>
>>But, more to the point. What is the justification for such?
>
>hO QEOS, hILASQHTI MOI TWi hAMARTWLWi
>
>Does this really signify anything more in the Greek than making hARTWLWi
>an
>attributive to MOI? I don't think the translators are doing anything more
>than expressing the sense of the Greek in idiomatic English. While I can
>conceive of hILASQHTI MOI hAMARTWLWi ONTI, I can't quite imagine hILASQHTI
>MOI hAMARTWLWi.
>-- 
Several grammars with which I am familiar deal with the article as used in 
Luke 18:13 as the article used to denote a class. egs. AXIOS hO ERGATHS TOU 
MISQOU AUTOU. Lk. 10:7 "A worker is worthy of his wage." The article is used 
with a noun that denotes a group of which the prayer is a member. I know of 
no translation that translates either of these with the English article.

Carlton Winbery
Louisiana College



More information about the B-Greek mailing list