[B-Greek] Mk 6:8b EI MH ... MH ... MH ...

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sat May 27 19:03:57 EDT 2006


On May 27, 2006, at 6:04 PM, Oun Kwon wrote:

> Hi there,
>
> On journey the disciples are told not to take things (in Mt 10:10 and
> in Lk 9:3). Here is the pertinent clause in Mk.
>
> Mk 6:8b
>
> EI MH hRABDON MONON MH ARTON MH PHRAN MH EIS THN ZWNHN CALKON
>
>
>
> Now, the problem is that all the translations read this as  'except a
> staff' taking parenthetically.  This makes the Markan text
> contradictory to the rest of the synoptics.

Oun, you ought to realize that we don't do synoptic criticism on B- 
Greek; if you want to discuss possible conflicts between the gospels,  
you'll have to take it to some other forum.

> What is the grammatical
> basis of this rendering (unacceptable to me)?  What I can see is
> simply 'EI' before the MH hRABDON.  If EI has to mean 'except', why it
> should govern hRABDON only, not the whole items listed?
>
> Since all the items are listed in a manner of MH ~ MH ~  ...., as for
> me, I am tempted to read this as
>
> 'not a single staff, nor pouch, no loaf of bread, no coins in their
> money-belt';
>
> I am not sure how I should understand the conjunction EI.

EI MH functions together as an adverbial conjunction; it does mean  
"except" or "excepting."


Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/





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