[B-Greek] A question on hWS

rhutchin at aol.com rhutchin at aol.com
Thu Jan 24 08:33:02 EST 2008


At the end of 1 Corinthians 14:33 and before 14:34, we find the phrase, hWS EN PASAIS TAIS EKKLHSIAIA TWN hAGIWN.

One translation (an older one, KJV) will have this phrase ending verse 33 while another (a newer one, ESV) will have it opening v34.

It seems, in my casual review of the use of hWS in the NT, that a hWs phrase always follows immediately after that which it modifies but most cases are pretty straightforward.? I did not see an exception (and there may be more) until I ran across the ESV treatment of the hWS phrase here, although ESV seems to be the way many people thought KJV should have been translated.

It may be that this is the only place in the NT where a situation like this comes up.? However, is there any basis for a rule for the translator to use that says that a phrase beginning with hWS should be taken to modify that which it immediately follows?? Is there a grammatical argument for the translator to look at the phrase, hWS EN PASAIS TAIS EKKLHSIAIS TWN hAGIWN, as belonging with 14:33 and not 14:34?? In English, either translation sounds good, so I wonder how the Greek reader would react to this phrase in reading this text without the aid of punctuation.

Roger Hutchinson



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