[B-Greek] Is this active or passive?
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Feb 9 19:38:52 EST 2007
On Feb 9, 2007, at 5:43 PM, By way of david.bielby at vcfbn.org wrote:
> Luke 9:31 Question
>
> What is the correct subject in the phrase "hHN HMELLEN PLHROUN"?
>
> Luke 9:31 hOI OFQENTES EN hODXHi ELEGON TEN EXODOV AUTOU, hHN
> HMELLEN PLHROUN
> EN IEROUSALHM
First, let's get the transliteration right:
Lk 9:31 hOI OFQENTES EN DOXHi ELEGON THN EXODON AUTOU, hHN HMELLEN
PLHROUN EN IEROUSALHM.
>
> Should it be rendered 'he accomplished', 'was to about to happen',
> or 'was to be fulfilled'
It's "his departure (way out/end/death), which he was about to
accomplish in Jerusalem.
PLHROUN is an active infinitve and it takes hHN -- which refers back
to EXODON -- as direct object. The subject of HMELLEN is implicitly
Jesus. The verb MELLW takes a complementary infinitive and means "be
on the verge of doing X" or "be destined to do X."
NIV and ESV as you cite them are closest to the structure of the
Greek formulation; NLT reformulates the meaning but does not offer as
"literal" a version and does not indicate that Jesus himself was the
one about to accomplish or "fulfill" this "departure."
> I think Zerwich and Robertson suggest accomplished.
>
> NLT has.....which was about to be fulfilled in Jerusalem.
> NIV.....which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.
> ESV....which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.
>
> If it should be translated as he was about to accomplish, then why
> is the pronoun not
> repeated? Would that sound funny in Greek? It seems open ended to
> me. I've not found
> a comment in any of my commentaries on this-and I have several
> really good ones.
>
> Your input is requested.
>
> Also, does the context (TEN EXODON) warrant the emphasis on PLHROW
> being taken as a
> prophetic fulfillment of the Exodus event? (Moses is there talking
> with Jesus...).
It's got nothing to do with the Exodus event of Israel's history. The
Greek word EXODOS here used refers strictly and solely to the
departure of Jesus, which for Luke means Jesus' elevation/ascension
as the completion of his mission.
> I know that can enter into theological perspective, but my question
> is specifically, how unusual
> is the term 'THN EXODON' as a reference to death. Does it really
> stand out as I am reading it does?
You really ought to look at the definition of EXODOS in BDAG; the
word appears 3x in the GNT; only one of those (Heb 11:22) refers to
the Israelite exodus from Egypt; the third is 2 Peter 1:15, where it
refers to Peter's departure/death. The most basic sense of the Greek
word is "departure." For what it's worth, you might note that the
final scene of a Greek tragedy was called EXODOS because the chorus
left the orchestra of the theater which it had entered in in the
opening choral song, the PROSODOS.
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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