[B-Greek] Two Questions
bertdehaan at gosympatico.ca
bertdehaan at gosympatico.ca
Sat Apr 19 14:45:45 EDT 2003
Hi everyone;
I am assuming that it is okay to ask two unrelated questions in one post. If not please let me know and it won't happen again.
1) The first question is about the number of soldiers present at Jesus' arrest.
In John 18:3 it is mentioned that Judas took the Cohort (THN SPEIRAN). I gathered that SPEIRA is a body of men at arms, a cohort, a tenth part of a legion. I looked up legion, and found that it was, depending on the time period, a band of soldiers numbering 3000-6000. Considering that it is speaking about a official detachment of soldiers and not about a band of renegades it would make sense to me that it consists of a standard number of men. In verse 12 the commander of this band is called hO CILIARCOS, a ruler of thousand. Is it possible that there were actually several hundred men involved or is SPEIRA more of a generic name for -a group of soldiers, and CILIARCOS a general term like -officer?
2) In Luke 23:43 Jesus said to one of the criminals on the cross; AMHN SOI LEGW, SHMERON MET ENOU ESHi EN TWi PARADEISWi. One commentator, who believes that after death our souls sleep until Jesus' second coming, wrote that this passage is to be translated as; -Truly I am telling you today, you will be with me in Paradise-.
I don't know why Jesus would specify that he is talking today unless he is contrasting it with something he had said previously. Does grammar rule out one way or the other or are both ways grammatically possible? Thank you.
Bert de Haan
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