[B-Greek] Mt 6:22-23 hAPLOUS and PONHROS

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sun Oct 5 06:52:22 EDT 2003


Recent messages and a replies to a question on the above text have raised
the issue of what is a legitimate issue for this list and whether or why
the question was more appropriate to B-Translation. The original question
or comment seemed to challenge translations and interpretations of this
Matthean passage in HCSB and NET. As the question/comment was originally
raised, it certainly wasn't a B-Greek question, and yet implicitly it was
and could have been posed very simply by citing the Greek text of Mt
6:22-23:

hO LUCNOS TOU SWMATOS ESTIN hO OFQALMOS EAN OUN Hi hO OFQALMOUS SOU
hAPLOUS, hOLON TO SWMA SOU FWTEINON ESTAI; EAN DE hO OFQALMOS SOU PONHROS
Hi, hOLON TO SWMA SOU SKOTEINON ESTAI. EI OUN FWS TO EN SOI SKOTOS ESTIN,
TO SKOTOS POSON.

and then asking the question, what may hAPLOUS and POHNROS in these two
verses legitimately be understood to mean in the context? If one wanted
then to cite one or two versions that seem to the questioner to
misinterpret the original text, that would not hurt, but for this list the
real question must focus on the Greek text and the meaning(s) appropriate
to them in the context of the verses in question. That is to say, the
question for B-Greekers concerns primarily the Greek words in a Greek text,
and only secondarily whether or not translations into any other language
have misrepresented what the Greek words in their context mean.
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Co-Chair, B-Greek List
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/



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