[B-Greek] Question on LXX Psalm 35:5 (Psa 36:5)
Harold R. Holmyard III
hholmyard at ont.com
Tue Dec 7 12:21:20 EST 2004
Dear Henry,
>The verse reads: KURIE EN TWi OURANWi TO ELEOS SOU KAI H ALHQEIA SOU
>EWS TWN NEFELWN.
>
>The Brenton translation has "O Lord, thy mercy is in the heavens and
>thy truth (reaches) to the clouds." Whiston is almost identical,
>using "(reacheth)."
>
>My rendering comes out: "O Lord in heaven, thy mercy and thy truth
>(reach) to the clouds."
>
>Is there good reason in the Greek to connect "EN TWi OURANWi" with
>"TO ELEWS SOU" rather than with "KURIE?"
HH: Perhaps the best reason in the Greek is that it is a translation
of the Hebrew, which evidently intends to connect "your mercy" with
"in heaven" rather than with "Lord." In Hebrew there is no "and"
between "mercy" and "truth." Also, there is a disjunctive accent
separating "Lord" from what follows, and a conjunctive accent joining
"in heaven" with "Your mercy." It looks like a typical chiasm
(1-2-2-1) preceded by a vocative.
HH: I don't know where Lancelot Brenton got the punctuation for his
Greek text, but his text has a comma after "Lord."
Yours,
Harold Holmyard
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