[B-Greek] Matthew 28:17: hOI DE EDISTASAN
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sat Apr 8 09:29:03 EDT 2006
On Apr 8, 2006, at 8:03 AM, Albert & Julia Haig wrote:
> Hello!
>
> KAI IDONTES AUTON PROSEKUNHSAN, hOI DE EDISTASAN
>
> The last phrase of this verse seems to be always rendered, "but
> some doubted". My question is, why can't it be translated "and they
> doubted", or "but they were also of two minds". Is there any
> grammatical reason? Is it just because it is assumed that you can't
> both worship and doubt simultaneously? I think you might be able
> to. Put this in context: the disciples seem the risen Jesus, they
> are totally amazed and overcome with awe, they worship him.
> Couldn't they also have had a great deal of doubt about what this
> all meant?
>
> Where are the translators getting the concept of "some" from? If
> the author of Matthew wanted to say "some", couldn't he have used
> TINES, as he does in 27:47 for instance? Are we just reluctant to
> admit that the disciples might have had their doubts, too?
Sure, but the key element here is the DE with hOI, indicating a shift
of focus to another group or sub-group.
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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