[B-Greek] The Genealogy of Jesus in Luke 3

Roger Hutchinson roger.hutchinson at comcast.net
Sat Sep 9 07:20:13 EDT 2006


I searched the achives for this particular question but did not find an 
answer I was comfortable with.

We have at Luke 3:23--

KAI AUTOS HN IHSOUS ARXOMENOS WSEI  ETWN TRIAKONTA WN hUIOS WS ENOMIZETO 
IWSHF TOU HLI...TOU QEOU.

It seems that Luke has to deal with the touchy issue of Jesus not being 
the biological son of Joseph so he writes, WS ENOMIZETO.

If we could forget about Joseph altogether, then Luke could have 
written, KAI AUTOS HN IHSOUS ARXOMENOS WSEI  ETWN TRIAKONTAWN hUIOS TOU 
HLI...TOU QEOU, and we could have many sermons from many pastors about 
Luke telling us that Jesus is hUIOS TOU QEOU.

However, it seems that we have hUIOS WS ENOMIZETO IWSHF...TOU QEOU so 
that we might think that Luke is telling us that Jesus was allegedly the 
son of Joseph and allegedly the son of God. 

Is that what Luke is trying to tell the reader?  I very strongly would 
like to understand that Luke intends for the reader to understand that 
Jesus is hUIOS TOU QEOU.  However, that requires that I read the verse 
as, KAI AUTOS HN IHSOUS ARXOMENOS WSEI  ETWN TRIAKONTAWN hUIOS [WS 
ENOMIZETO IWSHF] TOU HLI...TOU QEOU with [WS ENOMIZETO IWSHF] becoming 
an aside. 

The only rationale for this might be that Luke writes WS ENOMIZETO IWSHF 
and not WS ENOMIZETO TOU IWSHF. 

So, must I read this verse as, "Jesus was allegedly the son of Joseph, 
of Heli,..., of God?"

or

Can I read the verse as,  "Jesus was the son (allegedly of Joseph) of 
Heli,...,  of God."

What does the grammatical construction of the verse require that I do?

Roger Hutchinson








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