[B-Greek] Matt 3:4: the scope of HN

Webb webb at selftest.net
Fri Jan 12 13:40:00 EST 2007


It looks to me as though Mark makes the positive statement that John used to
eat (ESQIWN ktl) locusts and honey, and that Matthew says that his typical
diet was locusts and honey (hH DE TROFH HN AUTOU ktl): "and his food
[typically] was locusts and wild honey". But there's nothing in Matthew's
formulation that suggests that John never ate anything else. I guess you
could say that Matthew says this was the main thing he ate. Somebody else
may think it is weaker, approaching Mark's statement.
Webb Mealy
-----Original Message-----
From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Kenneth Litwak
Sent: Friday, January 12, 2007 10:22 AM
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [B-Greek] Matt 3:4: the scope of HN

   I recently was reading a study of honey and locusts
in John the Baptist's diet.  The author contrasted
Mark and Matthew on this because when Matthew says
(H DE TROFH HN AUTOU AKRIDES KAI MELI,
Matthew is saying that John's _only_ food was locsts
and honey.  This seems to me to place an awful lot of
weight on HN.  Is there any justification for seeing
this statement in such a narrow way grammatically? I
can't find any justification for that in the Greek
tools I have.  Thanks.

Ken Litwak
Adjunct Professor of New Testament
Asbury THeological Seminary
Wilmore, KY


 
____________________________________________________________________________
________
Get your own web address.  
Have a HUGE year through Yahoo! Small Business.
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/domains/?p=BESTDEAL
---
B-Greek home page: http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek
B-Greek mailing list
B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek





More information about the B-Greek mailing list