[B-Greek] GAMEW in Mt 22:23-30 par

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Apr 20 06:44:48 EDT 2004


Forwarded for: "Mike Singleton" <mike at singleton.ws>
To: "B Greek" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: naive question
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 23:10:30 -0700

(I have reformulated the transliteration to conform to BG standard)

Matthew 22:23-30 (or its scriptural counterparts: Mark 12:18-25 and
Luke 20:27-36) point to a translation consistent amongst all major
translations. My question is this; does the text support a view wherein;
 "ŠA quick look at the original Greek of this passage emphasizes that there
is a difference between the state of marriage and "marry [ing] " or "giving
in marriage," or wedding ceremonies, as referred to in Matthew 22:30. The
word translated as "marry" is GAMOUSIN, the third-person form of GAMEW,
which means "to enter the marriage state, to wed, to get married," and thus
clearly refers to an action at a point in time, not a state of
being-"he/she/it marries," as we'd say in English. The second term in the
verse, "giving in marriage" is GAMIZONTAI an alternative way of saying the
same thing (with the nuance that one is doing it for ones own benefit;
called the Middle Voice in Greek). Some people may say that if you have
been married, you have been "given in marriage," and this is true. So
what's the difference between the "given in marriage" in this sense, and in
the sense of "being married?" In I Corinthians 7:33 we see exactly the
phrase that describes a married person: "But he that is married (GAMHSAS =
"the married one") careth for the things that are of the world, how he may
please his wife." If Jesus had wanted to deny the existence of eternal
marriage, this is the word that would have been used in chronicling his
confrontation with the SadduceesŠ" 2002 Marc Schindler (FAIR)

Does this hold water? I am not sufficiently versed (yet!) to accurately
respond to this.


+++
Mike Singleton




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