[B-Greek] He 10:1 - subject of DUNANTAI

Mark Lama markosl80 at yahoo.com
Fri Oct 31 16:21:47 EST 2003



Jonathan Borland <jborland at lwconline.com> wrote:
Hey list,

If the pl. DUNANTAI is original, what would the subject be? Is it 
possible for a pl. verb here to still have the sg. hO NOMOS as subject?

[Mark]

No, it would not be possible for NOMOS  to be the subject if DUNANTAI is original. The Textus Receptus has DUNATAI: 

Heb. 10:1(TR): SKIAN GAR ECWN hO NOMOS TWN MELLONTWN AGAQWN, OUK AUTHN THN EIKONA TWN PRAGMATWN, KAT' ENIAUTON TAIS AUTAIS QUSIAIS hAS PROSFEROUSIN EIS TO DIHNEKES, OUDEPOTE DUNATAI TOUS PROSERCOMENOUS TELEIWSAI. 

"For the law, possessing [only] a shadow of the good things to come, not the things themselves (very hard to translate), it cannot, by the same sacrifices year after year, which they offer in perpetuum, ever perfect the worshipers." 

Substituting the plural DUNANTAI would have to make the subject of the sentence QUSIAI, "sacrifices" -- there is no other plural subject here that would seem to me to make sense. Unfortunately, I do not have a critical edition of the NT with me at the moment, so I am in the dark as to the scope of the textual variation here. Without any other word changes, that would make the syntax of the verse almost impossible. TAIS AUTAIS QUSIAIS would certainly have to be in the nominative, and ECWN ho N0MOS should be genitive absolute. Interestingly enough, though, QUSIAI is the implied subject of the next verb, in verse 2: EPEI  OUK AN EPAUSANTO PROSFEROMENOI... "Since would they not have ceased to be offered...". I feel like I am missing something here.

CARIS KAI EIRHNH,

Mark Lama



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