[B-Greek] Mt 9:28a

Harold R. Holmyard III hholmyard at ont.com
Thu Sep 1 15:51:31 EDT 2005


Dear George,

>  >> The NIV just translates the phrase EIS THN OIKIAN as "indoors."
>>
>>                                  Yours,
>>                                  Harold Holmyard
>______________
>
>Of course, the question was not "How is this to be translated?" but 
>"What is the referent?"  To understand the confusion here, one must 
>go back to the preceding verse
>
>KAI PARAGONTI EKEIQEN . . .
>
>What we are presented with here is that Jesus is depicted as leaving 
>the area where he had previously been (the archon's house) when he 
>is followed by two blind men.  Since he has left the archon's house, 
>what house might it be that is being referenced?  The use of the 
>article with OIKIAN would seem to indicate that some particular 
>house which should be known is referenced.  D. A. Hagner in the WBC 
>commentary on this passage notes that it cannot be the house 
>mentioned in v. 23 (i.e. the archon's house) nor probably that of v. 
>10 (Matthew's house).  I would suggest that it is most likely the 
>house belonging to the two blind men.  This would be understood from 
>the fact that he was EN THi OIKIAi when he was with Matthew and, 
>when the ruler comes grieving that his daughter has just died and 
>seeking his help, he is reported as
>
>ELQWN . . . EIS THN OIKIAN TOU ARXONTOS (v. 23).
>
>He is thus depicted as going where the problem lies.


HH: You could well be right. It seems conceivable, however, that "in 
the house" could be used to indicate the place Jesus entered or 
stayed without further definition. It could mean "indoors" as a kind 
of idiom. Then there would not have to be a specific place 
identified. This may have been the NIV idea. The use of "in the 
house" in Mark 10:10  suggests this interpretation. It does not seem 
possible that Mark 10:10 is a reference back to the house in 
Capernaum in 9:33 with the word "again," for Mark 10 is about Jesus' 
travels in Judea and in Perea across the Jordan (Mark 10:1). 
Capernaum is not in Judea or Perea but in Galilee, nor is it 
mentioned in Mark 10. There is no other particular location 
identified in the vicinity of Mark 10:10, so it is not really 
possible to identify a specific owner of the house. It might be the 
place Jesus was staying, since the word "again" is used, or it could 
mean "indoors."

Even in Mark 9:33, it is uncertain that the phrase "in the house" has 
to refer to a specific house such as Peter's.

The article can have something of a possessive connotation in Hebrew. 
You see this with the phrase "in the house" in LXX Judges 19:18. That 
would not have to be relevant here.

					Yours,
					Harold Holmyard




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