[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.



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