[B-Greek] Luke 11:13 - EX OURANOU and translation

Eric Weiss papaweiss1 at yahoo.com
Sun Mar 20 00:10:27 EST 2005


... POSWi MALLON hO PATHR [hO] EX OURANOU DWSEI PNEUMA hAGION TOIS 
AITOUSIN AUTON.
 
The textual preference is for hO EX OURANOU instead of EX OURANOU (but the hO is in 
square brackets in NA-27), translators prefer "father in heaven" or "heavenly father," and 
BDF (§437) says that this is an example of EX for EN. Robertson addresses it, but I'm not 
sure if he is agreeing that EX is being used for EN, or disagreeing that such is the case here. 
He writes: "In Lu. 11:13 hO PATER hO EX OURANOU DWSEI PNEUMA hAGION W.H. 
[Westcott-Hort] bracket hO before EX, and with hO the sending of the Holy Spirit by the Father 
has caused EX to displace EN which would otherwise have been regular." (pp. 599-600) 
 
But despite these things, I wonder if it would be better to go with the omission of the hO and 
translate it as "... how much more will the Father give from heaven the Holy Spirit to those who 
ask Him."? Luke's uses of EX OURANOU (3:22; 10:18, 11:16, 20:4, 20:5) and EN 
OURANWi/OURANOIS (6:23, 10:20, 12:33, 15:7, 18:22. 19:38) show that he uses them differently: he uses EX to mean "from" or "out of/from," and EN to mean "in" (locative).
 
The second hO means it would almost have to be translated with the EX OURANOU modifying 
PATHR (i.e., the Father from heaven = the Heavenly Father), but I think it's odd to use the 
phrase "the Father who is from heaven" (unless it really is an example of EX being used for 
EN). Omitting the hO allows EX OURANOU to be adverbially (?) modifying DWSEI, i.e., the 
Father will send the Holy Spirit from heaven. One variant of 11:2 adds: "let Your Holy Spirit 
come upon us and cleanse us," which I think supports the idea of the Holy Spirit coming from 
Heaven.
 
Or maybe go with the readings of ho PATHR hUMWN hO OURANIOS if one is to keep the 
second hO (even though Luke nowhere else uses OURANIOS except in 2:13, and only once in 
Acts 26:19).
 
Any thoughts?
 



Eric S. Weiss


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