[B-Greek] EWS THS TRITHS hHMERAS in Mt 27:64
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue May 30 10:08:33 EDT 2006
On May 30, 2006, at 7:39 AM, Joe Ripley wrote:
> They said that Jesus had said that he would rise META TREIS hHMERAS
> -after three days, so they asked for a guard to be set hEWS THS
> TRITHS hHMERAS -until the third day; what would that prove? They
> would have left before the action was to begin.
> If I asked to hire a car 'until the third day', apart from anything
> else, the car hirers would have to ask for further explanation.
> It would have been worse for Pilate - who was probably hoping for a
> quiet Sabbath, "What third day, from when, what sort of day -
> Roman, Jewish, daylight 12 hours or what?" Could THS TRITHS hHMERAS
> just be short for Tuesday?
> If there was no resurrection by Tuesday then their case would be
> proven and if you are a Wed. or Thur. or Fri. crucifixion proponent
> then you could still be happy with that.
Your question is not really about the Greek but about the consistent
retention of ancient time-reckoning in the phrasing of translations
about the resurrection accounts. What you need to realize is that all
these phrases ("after 3 days," "on the 3rd day," "until the third
day") are based upon standard ancient INCLUSIVE time-reckoning such
that Friday through Sunday constitute three days. Resurrection on
"the third day" means on the third day of a three-day count that
begins with the day of death.
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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