[B-Greek] MARIAM in Luke 1:46

Ted Shoemaker tedsmath at yahoo.com
Fri Dec 26 14:32:52 EST 2003


Williams Smith wrote:
> 
> In Luke 1:46, the name MARIAM is undeclinable. Is
> there any grammatical reason why it could not be
> translated as a dative (“and she said to Mary”)
> instead of a nominative (“and Mary said”)?

This is not an answer.  This is a related question, 
for those of you who know Greek better than I do.

I'm going to guess that, when using an undeclined name, 
one interpretation often "stands out" over the others.  
For example, in the text named above, "Mary said" 
seems a better first guess than "She said to Mary".
(That's just my take on it -- 
if you disagree, then my point is lost.)
If the author intends to say something other than 
the "interpretation that stands out", he would do
well to indicate it somehow, e.g. using an article:
EIPE hH MARIAM  "Mary said"
or
EIPE TH MARIAM  "She said to Mary".

For those of you with more experience in Greek, does this 
guess fit with what you've seen?

Thank you very much,

Ted Shoemaker


=====
Ted Shoemaker
 
"If homeschoolers can't be socialized, they'll just have to settle for being civilized."
                          (Robert Morrison)

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