[B-Greek] [O]TI at Mt 7:14

George F Somsel gfsomsel at juno.com
Sat Jul 9 17:30:20 EDT 2005


On Sat, 9 Jul 2005 12:27:33 -0700 (PDT) malcolm robertson
<mjriii2003 at yahoo.com> writes:
> Greetings,
>  
> What should have been a rather simple passage grammatically has now 
> turned into a perplexing dilemma.
>  
> Without going into the variant readings in this verse, I am 
> wondering what is the grammatical significance of TI at the head of 
> this passage if it is adopted as the better reading?  Is it an 
> example of the accusative of respect/specification?  The reason it 
> is perplexing (at least to me) is that both the second 
> corrector/scribes (about the 7th century) of both Codex Aleph and 
> Vaticanus changed the original reading OTI and OTI DE respectively 
> to TI.  I can't follow their logic.  Again, I am looking for the 
> grammatical significance here.
>  
> The verse reads thus:
>  
> [O]TI STENH hH PULH KAI TEQLIMMENH hH hODOS hH APAGOUSA EIS THN ZWHN 
> KAI OLIGOI EISIN hOI hEURISKONTES AUTHN
>  
> Cordially in Christ,
>  
> Malcolm Robertson
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Yes, the textual problem here reminds me somewhat of Churchill's
prediction of Soviet activity "It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside
an inigma."  The Word Bible Commentary notes that "A few relatively
unimportant mss . . . have TI."  Well, those few relatively unimportant
MSS happen to include the original hands of Sinaiticus and Vaticanus so
"go figure"; but we're not going to discuss that.

Metzger in his textual commentary notes

Besides having wide external support the reading TI also has strong
internal probabilities in its favor. There is no reason why the familiar
hOTI, if original, should have been altered to TI, used here to represent
the Semitic exclamation MfH? (“how!” compare Ps 139.17).?? On the other
hand, copyists who did not perceive the underlying Semitism would have
been tempted to assimilate TI to the preceding hOTI of ver. 13. 

In other words (textual problem aside), it is an exclamation (BDAG lists
it under #3 "exclamatory expression of extent or degree, how!"  I wonder
if it isn't significant that Mt which tends to have a more Semitic flavor
uses this expression whereas Lk phrases it otherwise in the parallel.  

george
gfsomsel
___________


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