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

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Jan 12 14:46:51 EST 2007


It appears to me that this is another instance of attempting to read  
a Biblical text as meaning more or less than it actually says.  
However much one might have one's curiosity fired by what is stated  
in the text, I would assume that the writer has stated no more than  
what he intended to tell. I would suppose also that the author of GMt  
meant by hH DE TROFH HN AUTOU AKRIDES KAI MELI AGRION pretty much the  
same thing that the author of GMk meant by HN ESQIWN AKRIDAS KAI MELI  
AGRION. Clearly the formulations are different but I can't see that  
an ounce of difference of meaning between the two formulations. "He  
(characteristically) ate X" = "His diet was (characteristically) X."

On Jan 12, 2007, at 1:40 PM, Webb wrote:

> 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

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/





More information about the B-Greek mailing list