[B-Greek] Luke 1:34 EPEI ANDRA OU GINWSKW;

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Wed Aug 27 10:48:26 EDT 2008


On Aug 27, 2008, at 8:57 AM, Jonathan Robie wrote:

> Luke 1:34 εἶπεν δὲ Μαριὰμ πρὸς τὸν  
> ἄγγελον,
> Πῶς ἔσται τοῦτο,
> ἐπεὶ ἄνδρα οὐ γινώσκω;
>
> Luke 1:34 EIPEN DE MARIAM PROS TON AGGELON,
> PWS ESTAI TOUTO,
> EPEI ANDRA OU GINWSKW;
>
> When I read this yesterday, I read γινώσκω (GINWSKW) as  
> present tense
> with imperfective force - "seeing as how I'm not sleeping with a man".
> Translations don't seem to go that way, and the commentaries I've  
> looked
> at so far don't even entertain this as a possibility.
>
> Why not - is it wrong to read it this way?

No, it isn't wrong. Several versions, including KJV and RSV, put it in  
the English present tense. Some, like NET, seem to want to take it as  
imperfective but convey it as a present perfect, "since I haven't been  
doing it ... " -- but that's really not consistent with the future  
tense in verse 31 συλλήμψῃ ἐν γαστρὶ [SULLHMYHi EN  
GASTRI]. I suspect that the commentaries you've consulted are  
considering the text as if it were in harmony with Matt 1:18, although  
the story in Luke is different from that in Matthew in some respects.


Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)






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