[B-Greek] 1 Cor 14:2b: Double-Duty OUDEIS?
Scott Stocking
scottsox at conxxus.com
Fri Dec 1 12:00:46 EST 2006
OUDEIS GAR AKOUEI, PNEUMATI DE LALEI MYSTHRIA (1 Cor 14:2b)
I am wondering what list members think about the possibility of OUDEIS
serving double-duty as the subject of both verbs in 1 Cor 14:2b? The first
part of the clause could be translated one of two ways depending on
contextual clues: "No one hears" (because the person is speaking to God, so
it is not vocalized or is spoken under one's breath), or "no one
understands" (because it is an unknown/uninterpreted tongue).
The second part of the clause is where it gets interesting in my mind. If
OUDEIS is taken to be the subject of both verbs, then the translation would
be "and no one speaks mysteries in/by the Spirit." In other words, if
tongues is talking _to_ God, then what the tongues speaker is saying to God
is not a mystery, because God understands what the Spirit is saying through
the individual, and perhaps God is revealing the meaning to the tongues
speaker so that he or she is edified (1 Cor 14:4). I suppose another way to
translate that clause (in the absence of other contextual clues) would be,
"because no one hears/understands _and then_ speaks mysteries in/by the
Spirit," especially if you give DE its continuative sense (as in Mt 1). The
way the NIV translates the passage, the DE almost seems to have the sense of
"because."
I think this has obvious implications for how this would impact the
connection between tongues/spirit language and edification in 1 Cor 14:4,
13-17, but I am still sorting all that out in my mind.
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