[B-Greek] Luke 1:31a

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sun Dec 21 07:56:48 EST 2003


At 8:08 PM -0800 12/20/03, Mitch Larramore wrote:
>KAI IDOU SULLHMYHi EN GASTRI KAI TEXHi hUION
>
>SULLHMYHi is future tense, like TEXHi. So why does
>Mary respond as if she is already pregnant? Gabriel
>just says that in the future you will give birth, and
>Mary knew that she would soon marry Joseph, so it
>seems like she should of concluded that she and Joseph
>would have a child in the future. How else can this
>future tense be understood. In fact, it seems like
>Gabriel says that you are NOT pregnant NOW, but that
>in the future you will become pregnant.

The qyestion is not really a question about what the Greek means but rather
about how one makes rational sense out of what the Greek obviously says.
The tense of the verbs is correctly identified and although I haven't
checked but a very few versions, but those that I have checked certainly
seem to get the tense right--so the question raised is not really about the
Greek but about interpretation quite apart from the Greek.

But I don't think you've read the implications of the Greek text
correctly--and I think that your question CAN be answered in terms of the
usage of the Greek verbs in this passage. I would say that Mary does NOT
respond as if she is already pregnant. All Gabriel's verbs in his
"annunciation" statement are in the future tense. So is Mary's response in
verse 34: PWS ESTAI TOUTO: "How will that be?" This shouldn't be equated
with "How COULD that be?"--even if she does say that she isn't carrying on
with a man; I think that Gabriel's response in verse 35 shows that he too
has understood ESTAI as a future indicative rather than as some sort of
potential condition--he explains what WILL happen:
	PNEUMA hAION EPELEUSETAI EPI SE
	             ^^^^^^^^^^^
	DUNAMIS hUYISTOU EPISKIASEI SOI ...
		         ^^^^^^^^^^
... whereupon Gabriel continues on to speak of what WILL COME TO PASS with
regard to Mary and her son, before shifting to Elizabeth and noting that
she has ALREADY conceived (verse 36: SUNEILHFEN hUION --contrast this with
SULLHMYHi in verse 31). And although the future indicative might
conceivably be used in a question like this to indicate possibility in
general, Luke shows in verse 38 that he (as we might expect of one who
writes literary Greek rather than the simpler vulgate of Mark and John)
understands and knows how to use the optative (in verse 38 Mary says,
GENOITO MOI KATA TO hRHMA SOU, a true optative of wish for fulfillment); in
verse 34 Luke could have phrased Mary's initial response to Gabriel as PWS
EIH (AN) TOUTO?--"How COULD that be (so)?" I think that this means she's
looking to the future rather than to a pregnancy already in effect; her
words in verse 38 (IDOU hH DOULH KURIOU; GENOITO MOI KATA TO hRHMA SOU) are
not atypical of traditional Jewish piety such as seen in narratives of 1
Samuel, etc.). Like those who respond to God's call in LXX narratives, Mary
acknowledges her status as God's servant and he readiness for what she has
been told that her commission will be. And that doesn't mean that she has
already become pregnant.
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/



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