Matthew 6:9

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sat Jun 15 16:44:32 EDT 2002


At 7:36 PM -0400 6/14/02, Carl W. Conrad wrote:
>At 7:06 PM -0400 6/14/02, rongordon at juno.com wrote:
>>What is the compeling reason for translating OURANOIS (dative masculine
>>plural) in the singular? I have only ever found one translation that
>>offers "heavens."
>
>The Greek noun OURANOS appears 183x in the singular in the GNT, 90x in the
>plural--and 55/90 of those plural forms are in Matthew. Matthew generally
>speaks of hH BASILEIA TWN OURANWN while the other Synoptic gospels more
>commonly speak of hH BASILEIA TOU OURANOU

In an off-list note to me Randall Buth has kindly corrected this, reminding
me that Mark and Luke generally use hH BASILEIA TOU QEOU where Matthew has
hH BASILEIA TWN OURANWN. What remains true is that the plural of OURANOS is
found more frequently in Matthew's gospel than elsewhere in the GNT.

The word means "sky"; the Hebrew
>word SHMYYM is a dual and it's generally thought that the use of the plural
>in Greek is derivative from the Hebrew number. An alternative view is that
>the space above each planet (this in a geocentric universe) constitutes a
>separate OURANOS and so there might be seven "heavens." If, however, by
>OURANOS we mean "sky"--even when it appears in the plural in Greek, it
>hardly makes much sense to translate OURANOI as an English plural. How many
>"skies" do we normally count (when we're sober)?
>--
>
>Carl W. Conrad
>Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
>Most months:: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
>cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad at ioa.com
>WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
>
>---
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-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months:: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad at ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/



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