[B-Greek] 2 Peter 3:11-a negative??

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at ioa.com
Fri Dec 2 10:32:03 EST 2005


On Dec 2, 2005, at 10:17 AM, Lorinda Hoover and Jim Mossman wrote:

> Greetings again.
>
> In working on 2 Peter 3:11,
>
> TOUTWN hOUTWS PANTWN LUOMENWN POTATOUS DEI hUPARCEIN [hUMAS] EN hAGIAS
> ANASTROFAIS KAI EUSEBEIAS.

That should be POTAPOUS and hAGIAIS KAI EUSEBEIAIS, ...
>
> I looked at several translations, and found something odd in Segond:

So now B-Greekers are consultants on how best to translate Greek into  
French?

> Puisque donc toutes ces choses doivent se dissoudre, quelle ne  
> doivent pas
> etre la saintete de votre conduite et votre piete.
>
> (Since, therefore, all these things must dissolve, such must not be  
> the
> holiness of your conduct and your piety.)

The "quelle" is not the demonstrative but the interrogative "what" --  
and of course the translator has abandoned the grammatical structure  
of the Greek and nominalized the adjectives as qualities of the  
writer's addressed congregation.

> I can't figure out why there is a negative (ne...pas) here.  I  
> realize that
> there are several possibilities that may be off topic for this  
> list, so my
> question here concerns whether or not the Greek can be construed  
> this way.

If you translate the French with that one change, see how it works:  
"what must the holiness of your conduct and your piety not be?" The  
point is: "Surely your conduct must be remarkable  in all respects,  
n'est-ce pas?"


Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/




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