[B-Greek] 1Co 7:37 hOS and its referent
Oun Kwon
kwonbbl at gmail.com
Sat Apr 23 11:46:40 EDT 2005
Dear the list members,
1Co 7:36-38 has been translated in several different contradicting ways
because the text seems unclear about who is the male person being referred
to; one way of understanding this text is by taking him as the *father *of
the virgin and another one is the *fiancé* of the virgin. Each one has its
own huddles from within the Greek text itself. For example. I understand v.
38 GAMIZW 'give in marriage; marry some off' is not same as 'marry', then v.
38 would not allow to take the man as her fiancé. Some rendering keeps it
rather unclear.
As a solution for the difficulty in interpretation and translation, I like
to take the relative pronoun hOS at the beginning of v. 37 being
disconnected from the previous verse, and making a new sentence here and
taking him as her father in contrast to her fiancé in the v. 36. In that
case 'virgin' may be further clarified as *'virgin fiancee'* in v. 36
and *'virgin
daughter'* in v.37 and 38. This would make the rendering smoother, clear,
and without contradiction.
Here I have to have some insight from Greek grammar. Because, if this
relative pronoun should be connected to the preceding verses, I fail to find
the expected referent to make my understanding correct. In a dictionary,
some different constructions of this were mentioned, such as when it is sued
with particles EAN or AN, where it is translated 'whosoever, whatever,
whose' (Complete Biblical Library) . This may give some support of my
rendering which disconnects hOS from the preceding clause so that I do not
have to find its referent which only comes up in the following. How should I
understand this relative pronoun in Greek grammar and syntax so that I would
not be making a mistake while trying to make a sensible rendering and
interpretation?
I hope I have made my inquiry clear.
Thanks for your help
Oun Kwon, a Gk IDWTHS.
P.S. Is there any regulation whether one can you rtf format in our e-mail
text.
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list