Luke 18:11

Mark DelCogliano cassian at dellepro.com
Thu Aug 8 18:00:13 EDT 2002


I briefly researched this very question of Chet's some time ago.

NA25: hO FARISAIOS STAQEIS *TAUTA PROS hEAUTON* PROSHUCETO

GNT4 & NA27: hO FARISAIOS STAQEIS *PROS hEAUTON TAUTA* PROSHUCETO

Notice the varying placement of PROS hEAUTON. There is considerable MS
variation with regard to the positioning of PROS hEAUTON within the verse.
Chet quotes the reading of NA25 and Westcott-Hort (among others), which
differs from the present 'received text'. Therefore, depending on what text
you read, both Carl and Randall are correct!

*TAUTA PROS hEAUTON* would mean: "The Pharisee, standing, was praying these
things to himself." (Cf. "Der Pharisäer stellte sich hin und sprach leise
dieses Gebet": "The Pharisee stood and said this prayer quietly"; "Le
Pharisien, debout, priait ainsi en lui-même": "The Pharisee, standing
upright, was praying thus to himself".) Carl has clearly based his
interpretation on this reading.

*PROS hEAUTON TAUTA* is more difficult to determine semantically. Black [in
his book on the Aramaic background of the bible] 103f, 299 and others see it
as representing an Aramaic ethical dative which emphasizes the verb: "The
Pharisee, taking his stand, prayed" or "The Pharisee, brazenly/boldly
standing, prayed." (Cf. Mk 14:4 for another example of Aramaic ethical
dative; see Black 77) Thus obviosly accords with Randall's assessment of the
verse, though he sees it less emphatically than Black.

So the interpretation of this passage depends on which text you could to
follow.

Mark DelCogliano






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