[B-Greek] A Question for B-Greek John 20:26 "After eight days"

Iver Larsen iver_larsen at sil.org
Wed Jan 17 01:53:00 EST 2007


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Oun Kwon" <kwonbbl at gmail.com>
>
> However, the expression  META hHMERAS OKTW in Gk cannot be same as 'after
> eight days' in English usage.

That is correct. In English it would be after seven days, if you want to keep the after 
construction, but as you say it seems ambiguous in English and is not the most natural way of saying 
it.

> Similar difficulties I have encountered in the Passion narratives when I
> come across the expression 'after three days' 'three days later' and 'on the
> third day', apparently referring to the same day.  (Is it that counting off
> days may be different than expressing 'duration' of days?)
>
> I would appreciate greatly for your helping me out of confusion.

As far as I can see the confusion is originally caused by the tendency to produce literal 
translations as well as a lack of understanding of the difference between inclusive and exclusive 
counting. Almost all English versions are either wrong on this point or ambiguous.

For instance, if you compare META TREIS hHMERAS in Mrk 8:31 with the parallel passage THi TRITHi 
hHMERAi in Matt 16:21, you will notice that the two different expressions are used to give the same 
meaning, which is either "on the third day" in English or "two days later." The first of these is 
open to misunderstanding, since many would still understand it as if it meant three days later. 
Unfortunately, TEV, NLT and CEV all say "three days later" in Mark 8:31. There are certain 
constructions and contexts where "on the third day" is natural in English, but they are not the 
constructions we meet in these examples from the NT.

Iver Larsen





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