[B-Greek] Matthew 21:5

Sara Edwards sltj77 at gmail.com
Sat Oct 7 20:55:32 EDT 2006


George,

Thanks for the reference in 1st Kings, it was very helpful.

So if I understand you, are you saying that Matthew correctly
understood the Hebrew Parallelism, but the translators did not?

The reason I ask is that I have been discussing this topic with
another person who felt this was a major blunder on Matthew's part
since he seems to indicate the king rode two donkeys where the Hebrew
only speaks of one.  I was attempting to discern whether the ONON
mentioned first in the 21:5 was written in the Accusative Singular
Feminine to denote it's gender.  If it was, then Matthew would have
been incorrect since he stated that the King rode on a (female) donkey
and the (male) colt when the Hebrew clearly states he rode only a male
foal.

If ONON can be written in either masculine or feminine and this has
nothing to do with the donkey's actual gender, then it seems possible
that the parallelism could be preserved and KAI could mean "even"
instead of "and".

I hope that made sense.

Sara


On 10/7/06, George F Somsel <gfsomsel at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> ZECH. 9:9
>
> LXX
> CAIRE SFODRA QUGATER SIWN KHRUSSE QUGATER IEROUSALHM IDOU
> hO BASILEUS SOU ERCETAI SOI DIKAIOS KAI SWiZWN AUTOS PRAUS KAI
> EPIBEBHKWS EPI hUPOZUGION KAI PWLON NEON
>
> MT
> G.iLiY M:)oD B.aT_CiY.oWN HfRiY(iY B.aT Y:RW.$fLaiM HiN."H MaLK."K YfBoW)
> LfK
> CaD.iYQ W:NoW$f( HW.) (fNiY W:RoK"B (aL_X:aMoWR W:(aL_(aYiR B.eN_):aToNoWT
>
> MATT. 21:5
> NA-27
> EIPATE THi QUGATRI SIWN:
> IDOU hO BASILEUS SOU ERCETAI SOI
> PRAUS KAI EPIBEBHKWS EPI ONON
> KAI EPI PWLON hUION hUPOZUGIOU.
>
> If you look you will note that the LXX uses only hUPOZUGION where Mt uses
> ONON as well as hUPOZUGION.  The LXX has abandoned the parallelism found in
> the Hebrew.  This would indicate that the author either made his own
> translation or used a different tradition from that of  the LXX.  ONOS is
> like PARQENOS in that it can be either masculine or feminine.  hUPOZUGION is
> neuter.  Mt follows the Hebrew text more closely as is demonstrated by the
> parallelism ot of lines.  A characteristic very notable in Hebrew poetry is
> this parallelism and therefore in this case it does not indicate two
> separate animals in the Hebrew.  Apparently this fact was lost sight of in
> the NT version and the two parallel lines were taken to indicate two
> separate animals.
>
> If you want to understand the background of this passage, read 1 Kg 1.
>  george
> gfsomsel
> _________
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Sara Edwards <sltj77 at gmail.com>
> To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> Sent: Saturday, October 7, 2006 3:24:16 PM
> Subject: [B-Greek] Matthew 21:5
>
>
> I have a question regarding Matthew's quotation of Zechariah 9:9 (Mathew
> 21:5).
>
> The first donkey mentioned is written in the Accusative Singular Feminine
> while the colt is in the Accusative Singular Masculine.  Does this imply
> that the first donkey was female and the second a male?   If so, how does
> one reconcile this with Zechariah's verse which states that the king would
> ride a male donkey only?
>
> Thanks for your help.
>
> Sara Edwards
> ---
> B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
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>



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