[B-Greek] The Meaning of PAS

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Jun 22 05:46:31 EDT 2007


On Jun 22, 2007, at 4:02 AM, Iver Larsen wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu>
>
>> On Jun 21, 2007, at 10:12 AM, George F Somsel wrote:
>>
>>> As in most, if not all languages, no word has simply one meaning
>>> but has numerous meanings which are to be determined by the context
>>> in which it is used.  Louw & Nida gives 5 usages of PAS
>>>
>>> 1. all -- the first usage in Mt 9.35 τὰς πόλεις πάσας
>>> (TAS POLEIS PASAS)
>>> 2. any -- see Mt 19.3
>>> 3. total -- see Tit 2.15
>>> 4. whole -- Mt 18.32
>>> 5. every kind of -- 2nd and 3rd usage in Mt 9.35
>>>
>>> george
>>> gfsomsel
>>
>> And then there's Mark 1:5 καὶ ἐξεπορεύετο πρὸς
>> αὐτὸν πᾶσα ἡ Ἰουδαία χώρα καὶ οἱ
>> Ἱεροσολυμῖται πάντες, καὶ
>> ἐβαπτίζοντο ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ ἐν τῷ
>> Ἰορδάνῃ ποταμῷ ἐξομολογούμενοι
>> τὰς ἁμαρτίας αὐτῶν.
>>
>> KAI EXEPOREUETO PROS AUTON PASA hH IOUDAIA CWRA KAI hOI IEROSOLUMITAI
>> PANTES, KAI EBAPTIZONTO hUP' AUTOU EN TWi IORDANHi POTAMWi
>> EXOLOMOLOGOUMENOI TAS hAMARTIAS AUTWN.
>>
>> of which some want to say that PASA and PANTES here don't really mean
>> "all of Judaea" and "all the people of Jerusalem" but that these are
>> figurative terms. I've never been convinced of that.
>>
>> Carl W. Conrad
>
> How would you then interpret the English word "all"? Does "all the  
> people of Jerusalem" refer to
> each and every inhabitant in the city or to a lot of people from  
> the city? "All of Judaea" is a
> metonymy which refers to "all" the people living in the land called  
> Judaea. How would you interpret
> "All of California came to see the president when he visited LA"?
> I won't comment on the placement of PAS in these two noun phrases,  
> since we have agreed to disagree
> on the function of word order.
>
> From a mathematical and strictly logical point of view, "all" is  
> taken to mean each and every one
> without exception. However, in common language "all" rarely has  
> such an extreme connotation. It
> depends on the context as George said.
>
> The interesting question for the translator is in which contexts  
> the Greek PAS is best translated by
> "all" and when it is better translated by "many" or "every kind of"  
> or something else. PAS has a
> semantic range of senses that does not completely overlap with the  
> semantic range of "all" in
> English. But that is not unusual. The semantic range of "all" in  
> English is not the same as the
> semantic range of the corresponding word in related languages like  
> German, French, Danish etc.

I don't disagree with any of this. I simply think that the usage of  
PASA and PANTES in Mark 1:5 is rhetorical, that the nararator intends  
to say that the challenge of John confronted all of Judea and all  
Jerusalemites. Of course, it would be rhetorical to say also,  
"Everybody went to see such and such" -- when we know that it's not  
literally true. I think the narrator of Mark's gospel knows that not  
all Judeans and not all Jerusalemites actually went out to see John  
and certainly that they were not all -- without exception -- baptized  
by John in the Jordan river, but I think he's already pointing  
forward to the drama beginning in chapter 11. So I think that the  
usage of PASA and PANTES is not colloquial exaggeration but  
rhetorical exaggeration.

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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