[B-Greek] Hebrews 2:8

Iver Larsen iver_larsen at sil.org
Thu May 27 01:34:55 EDT 2004


> Greetings,
>
> I am attempting to give a clear English version of Hebrews 2:8
> that captures the full force of the grammatical construction.

You will find such a clear English version in the TEV/GNB (Good News Bible)
which says:
"It says that God made them “rulers over all things”; this clearly includes
everything."

> So far I have arrived at the following two possibilities, after
> having studied Thayer's comments on 'gar'. I have not translated
> the first 'autw' since it is bracketed in the Novum Testamentum Graece.
>
>   en tw gar upotaxai [autw] ta panta ouden aphhken autw
> anuotakton.
>
> Then as the case stands, in the subjection "all things" means he
> left nothing not made subject to him.
>
> or
>
>  en tw gar upotaxai [autw] ta panta ouden aphhken autw anuotakton.
>
> Then as the case stands, in the subjection "all things" left
> nothing not made subject to him.
>
> Thayer's notes:
>
> 1)      Thayer- primary and original force is seen in questions
> and answers expressed with emotion; where according to the
> connection, it may be freely represented by 'assuredly, verily,
> forsooth, why, then, etc.
>
> 2)      Thayer- it adduces the cause or reason of a preceding
> statement or opinion
>
> 3)      A particle of affirmation and conclusion, denoting 'truly
> therefore, verily as the case stands'
>

Thayer's notes on GAR are misleading. It is not surprising that Thayer did
not properly understand the function of GAR, because it is a discourse
particle, and the science of discourse linguistics had not yet been
developed at that time.
You will find a number of postings on GAR in the archives.

Briefly stated GAR introduces a comment that further explains or supports
part of what was said in the previous sentence. No English equivalent
exists. In narratives, it often introduces supporting background
information. In expositions, it introduces a further point in the
argumentation which explains the previous point in more detail and/or
advances the argumentation one step further.

In literal translations, it is normally rendered by "for" in English, but in
most cases this is inadequate, unclear, unnatural and may be misleading. In
idiomatic translations, it is either left untranslated, or it is rendered by
a variety of different means, depending on context.

Now, about your text, we need to include the last part of the quote about
human beings (ANQRWPOS) who were set below the angels for a time but above
all things:

PANTA hUPETAXAS hUPOKATW TWN PODWN AUTOU.
EN TWi GAR hUPOTAXAI AUTWi TA PANTA, OUDEN AFHKEN AUTWi ANUPOTAKTON

The GAR indicates that the author is picking up from the previous sentence
the concept of "(God) putting everything under the human being's feet" and
this is also indicated by the EN plus article which introduces the words
repeated from the quote. The meaning can be translated in several different
ways, but it could be something like: When it says that "God/he put
everything under the control of human beings" it means that absolutely
nothing is exempted from being under their control.
A more literal and therefore less clear option: Now, in talking about
putting everything under his control, he left *nothing* not being under his
control." (The stars indicate emphasis shown by stress in English).

Iver Larsen




More information about the B-Greek mailing list