[B-Greek] Luke 11:13 - EX OURANOU and translation
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sun Mar 20 07:04:47 EST 2005
At 9:10 PM -0800 3/19/05, Eric Weiss wrote:
>... 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 (ß437) 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?
Yes; it's not quite clear whether you're asking a TC question or a
translation question, both of which would be more appropriate in other
venues. I'll respond rather with a (gut feeling) view on the diction: I
think this is really a rather colloquial usage of a prepositional phrase in
an adjectival sense. I may be wrong, but I'd guess that EX OURANOU here
should indeed be understood as characterizing hO PATHR rather than as
qualifying DWSEI. Earlier Greek--and probably even Hellenistic
"school-taught" Greek didn't like prepositional phrases used adjectivally
unless they were substantivized after a fashion with an article turning the
prepositional phrase into a sort of appositive to the noun being qualified:
hO PATHR hO EX OURANOU = "the Father, the heavenly one."
In this connection I'm reminded of the recurrent question regarding the
syntax of Paul's citation of Hab 2:4 in Rom 1:17 and Gal 3:11: hO DIKAIOS
EK PISTEWS ZHSETAI, which is usually Englished by something like "The one
who by faith is righteous will live." The assumption seems to be that EK
PISTEWS functions adjectivally in agreement with hO DIKAIOS although in
terms of older Greek grammar it ought to be understood adverbially with
ZHSETAI (LXX has for Hab 2:4 hO DE DIKAIOS EK PISTEWS MOU ZHSETAI, where EK
PISTEWS MOU is unquestionably adverbial). At any rate, IF the construing of
EK PISTEWS with hO DIKAIOS as adjectival is acceptable Koine usage, then
there's no reason why EX OURANOU cannot function adjectivally with hO PATHR.
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
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