[B-Greek] The Meaning of PAS

Jonathan Robie jwrobie at mindspring.com
Fri Jun 22 07:15:53 EDT 2007


Carl W. Conrad wrote:
> 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.
>   

Precisely.

I think some people read an English translation, see "all" used in that 
sense, and hope that turning to the original Greek will reveal something 
that is precisely, literally, mathematically correct. In English or in 
Greek, it is written in human language, using rhetorical devices, 
written by and for humans. When my daughter tells me "everyone's wearing 
these", we both know that only some teenage girls are wearing them, and 
that this is rhetorical exaggeration. That doesn't mean she's wrong, it 
means she is one human being communicating to another human being and 
using the power of rhetorical devices. (It also doesn't mean that I will 
let her wear it.)

Jonathan




More information about the B-Greek mailing list