[B-Greek] Heb. 1.7: PNEUMATA-FLOGA

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Feb 7 12:23:40 EST 2007


On Feb 7, 2007, at 12:38 PM, Iver Larsen wrote:

> Just a couple of comments in response to Carl's questions.
>
> I would agree that the "natural" way of understanding the grammar  
> of the Greek text which is
> identical in Psalms 103(4):4 and Heb 1:7 is to take the first noun  
> phrase as object for the verb and
> the second noun phrase as predicate. However, the translator of  
> Psalms 103/4 was slavishly literal,
> keeping the word order of the Hebrew text, and thereby he seems to  
> have produced a somewhat
> unnatural and ambiguous Greek sentence. Therefore, I would put very  
> little significance on the Greek
> word order, and appeal to the context to understand the text. I  
> doubt that the author of Hebrews was
> familiar with Hebrew, but he must have been familiar with the  
> peculiar variety of translation Greek
> one often finds in the LXX. When you read a text in an unnatural  
> translation, you tend to rely more
> on context and your background knowledge for the interpretation  
> than on fluid things like Greek word
> order.

It seems to me that some questions are begged here. I think there was  
good reason to seek Al Pietersma's wisdom regarding the LXX of Psalm  
104.4 as an accurate representation of the Hebrew text and of it's  
"naturalness."

> When you read a text in an unnatural translation, you tend to rely  
> more
> on context and your background knowledge for the interpretation  
> than on fluid things like Greek word
> order.

Well, I guess that sometimes we have to guess at what we don't know.  
Evidently the same writer who penned Heb 1:7 also wrote,  ESTIN DE  
PISTIS ELPIZOMENWN hUPOSTASIS, PRAGMATWN ELEGCOS OU BLEPOMENWN.

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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