[B-Greek] Two Questions
Kevin Woodruff
cierpke at prodigy.net
Sat Apr 19 15:27:38 EDT 2003
Bert:
According to Schurer, only one cohort was in Jerusalem
under a tribune (chiliarch. It is my supposition that
this band was somewhat less than the whole Roman
contingent stationed in Jerusalem. BDAG says it was
normally 600 men, but that the number varied and the
give the citation from Josephus' Jewish War 3:67.
As far as your second question, the word order would
suggest that SHMERON goes with what follows as in Lk
4:21; 19:9; Acts 4:9; 13:33. I think that is a case of
letting theology driving interpretation
Kevin
--- bertdehaan at gosympatico.ca wrote:
> 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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=====
Prof. Kevin W. Woodruff, M. Div., M. S. I. S.
Library Director/Reference Librarian, Professor of New Testament and Greek
Cierpke Memorial Library
Tennessee Temple University/Temple Baptist Seminary, 1815 Union Ave.
Chattanooga, Tennessee 37404, United States of America
423/493-4252 (office) 423/698-9447 (home) 423/493-4497 (FAX)
Cierpke at prodigy.net . http://pages.prodigy.net/cierpke/woodruff.htm
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