[B-Greek] Matthew 21:5

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sun Oct 8 09:41:06 EDT 2006


On Oct 8, 2006, at 9:17 AM, Sara Edwards wrote:

> Yes, I do see that Matthew was referring to two animals in 21:2.   
> I'm not as
> concerned with that fact since the case can be made that the mother  
> of the
> colt accompanied the procession (which would make sense if the colt  
> had
> never been ridden before as Mark and Luke point out).  But if the  
> prophecy
> from Zechariah was changed by Matthew to state that Jesus rode a  
> female
> donkey and a male colt, then this would be quite different from the  
> Hebrew.
> That's why I asked if the Accusative Singular Feminine used with  
> ONON was
> meant to denote the gender of the donkey.  Is that the case?

Yes; the participle DEDEMENHN can only refer to ONON, and moreover
the pronounc AUTHS can have only ONON as its antecedent.

The real problem in this textual sequence lies in verse 7:

HGAGON THN ONON (again the gender is clear from THN) KAI TON
PWLON KAI EPEQHKAN EP' AUTWN TA hIMATIA, KAI
EPEKAQISEN EPANW AUTWN.

They put the hIMATIA upon AUTWN -- both animals -- and he sat
upon AUTWN. The second AUTWN could have either the hIMATIA
or the animals as its antecedent, But one must ask why the hIMATIA
would be put upon both animals if Jesus mounted only upon one of
them.

> On 10/7/06, George F Somsel <gfsomsel at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>> The problem is not so much with the quotation since, as you note,  
>> the KAI
>> could be understood as "even."  There is a major problem, however,  
>> with the
>> Matthew account in the following verses where there is no poetic  
>> parallelism
>> yet there is reference to two animals as well as especially in v. 2
>> preceding where we read
>>
>> hEURHSETE ONON DEDEMENHN KAI PWLON MET' AUTHS
>>
>> which cannot be understood as one animal since the PWLON was to be  
>> MET'
>> AUTHS.  No, the author of Matthew did not understand the  
>> parallelism and
>> portrayed the scene as containing two animals.  This may or may  
>> not indicate
>> a person different from the author of the gospel as the translator  
>> of the
>> Zechariah passage.
>>
>> george
>> gfsomsel
>> _________
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----
>> From: Sara Edwards <sltj77 at gmail.com>
>> To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
>> Sent: Saturday, October 7, 2006 8:55:32 PM
>> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Matthew 21:5
>>
>> 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
>>> ---
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>>>
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>>
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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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