[B-Greek] matt 15:24

Carlton Winbery winberycl at earthlink.net
Tue Jan 31 09:10:43 EST 2006


>Two questions regarding mt 15:24.
>   
>   1.  "ei mh"  is a conditional conjunction as far as I can tell, 
>but I am still a bit perplexed by how it fits into the sentence and 
>is best translated (eg, "except")
>   
>   2.  "oikou Israel"  both nouns are genitive.  as far as genitives 
>go, I am having a tough time distinguishing whether it is 
>epexegetical (referring to all of Israel) or partitive (those of the 
>house of Israel who were lost) or neither.
>
>   Thanks for any help that you can provide.
>
Please use a full name signature as is required in the FAQ 
http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek.

The text: Mt. 15:24 hO DE APOKRIQEIS EIPEN: OUK APESTALHN EI MH EIS 
TA PROBATA TA APOLWLOTA OIKOU ISRAHL.

   EI MH, literally "if not" can be brought into English as "except" 
and indicates the idea in "but only" followed by EIS, "but only for." 
BDAG is very helpful in giving egs. of the use of these little words. 
This use is quite common in Helenistic Greek.

TA PROBATA TA APOLWLOTA OIKOU ISRAHL is the common use the genitive 
to refer to a part of the whole. "The lost sheep" are a part of the 
"whole house of Israel."
-- 
Carlton L. Winbery
Retired Professor of Religion
Louisiana College
318-448-6103
winberycl at earthlink.net
winbery at lacollege.edu



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