[B-Greek] Luke 2:47,48 amazed & astonished
Paul Rembach
prembach at ourmail.ch
Sun Jan 29 13:36:33 EST 2006
In Luke 2:47,48 we find two different words, namely EXISTANTO (EXISTHMI) in
verse 47 and EXEPLAGHSAN (EKPLHSSW) in verse 48, that are synonyms.
There is basically little differentiation between the two words in the
Lexicon of the NT Based on Semantic Domains - entry No. 25.220 and 25.219,
other than that perhaps the first may be ever so slightly stronger an
expression than the second.
English translations render these as amazed and astonished respectively
(NIV, RSV). Would it be reasonable to say that Luke used two different
words just to add variety to his writing, simply because Greek has these
synonyms as does English, or is there some grammatical limitation to using
the same word in both instances?
Paul Rembach
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