Matthew 12:6

Richard Ghilardi qodeshlayhvh at juno.com
Sat Aug 3 08:08:35 EDT 2002


B-Greekers:

On Sat, 03 Aug 2002 03:54:06 +0000 "Mark Wilson" <emory2oo2 at hotmail.com>
writes:
> 
> 
> LEGW DE hUMIN hOTI TOU hIEROU MEIZON ESTIN hWDE
> 
> I tell you that something greater than the temple is here.
> 
> 
> Can someone help me understand this comment I read in
> a commentary on MEIZON:
> 
> "If we take it as an equivalent to the masculine..."
> 
> Of course, where he was headed was "someONE greater than..."
> 
> What is the justification for taking a Neuter as equivalent
> to a Masculine?
> 

The meaning here is difficult almost to the point of impossibility, just
as it is in a vl of Jn 10:29 of recent memory:

hO PATHR MOU hOS DEDWKEN MOI PANTWN MEIZON ESTIN

Or at least Carl Conrad thinks so.

I see little difficulty in these verses, as also in the following:

Mt 12:41,42: KAI IDOU PLEION IWNA hWDE... KAI IDOU PLEION SOLOMWNOS hWDE
cf. Lk 11:31,32

Nor do any of these sound awkward when rendered into English:

"Something greater than Jonah is here... something greater than Solomon
is here" (i.e., something greater than a prophet, something greater than
a king)

"Something greater than the temple is here."

"My Father... is something greater than everything else."

So what's the problem?

Yours in His grace,

Richard Ghilardi -- qodeshlayhvh at juno.com
New Haven, CT USA




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