[B-Greek] hEWS AN--"While" (Heb. 1:13)?
Webb
webb at selftest.net
Wed May 9 20:37:45 EDT 2007
KAQOU EK DEXIWN MOU hEWS AN QW TOUS ECQROUS SOU UPOPODION TWN PODWN SOU
I was about to render Heb. 1:13 (quoting Ps. Ps. 109:1 LXX [=110:1 English])
similarly to the way I've seen it in many English translations:
Sit on my right, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.
But then I read Lattimore's rendering, and it got me thinking.
Sit on my right, so that I may make your enemies a footstool for your feet
I started thinking that we don't say "until", but "while", to convey what I
suspect the statement might be getting at:
Sit on my right, while I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.
Does anyone want to demonstrate that hEWS AN always has to mean "until", in
the sense that most English speakers would get from it, that carries the
implication that the "sitting on the right" comes to an end when God's
making footstools of the enemies comes to an end? BAGD lists the sense
"while" for hEWS (def. 2: see Mk 14:32; Lk. 17:8), but, apart from those
instances of hEWS AN that come from this LXX quotation (6/19) and that in
Mt. 12:20, the NT instances all clearly mean "until".
Webb Mealy
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