[B-Greek] Matthew 16:18 - two questions

George F Somsel gfsomsel at yahoo.com
Sun Jul 20 15:05:33 EDT 2008


I think what we have with "the gates of hell" is a metonymy so that what is referenced is actually hell itself and not the literal gates (are there such?).

 george
gfsomsel


… search for truth, hear truth, 
learn truth, love truth, speak the truth, hold the truth, 
defend the truth till death.


- Jan Hus
_________



----- Original Message ----
From: Eric S. Weiss <papaweiss1 at yahoo.com>
To: b-greek <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, July 20, 2008 2:51:03 PM
Subject: [B-Greek] Matthew 16:18 - two questions

> 1.  Since AUTHS is fem it cannot reference PETROS and therefore 
> must either be PETRA or EKKLHSIA.  As the nearer referent 
> EKKLHSIA would seem to be preferable.  I would concur that 
> PETROS (Peter, a rock) and PETRA (bedrock) are two different 
> things.
> 
> 2.  OU KATAISXUSOUSIN AUTHS would seem to eliminate the church 
> as the attacker.  It is not that the attack would NOT BE able 
> to be withstood, but rather that it WOULD BE withstood.
Thanks for your response. My comments:

1. Preferable, but not assured, I would guess. I can't find anything in BDF or Smyth or 
Robertson that discusses pronoun referents or antecedents re: how often the referent 
is or must be the nearest one when two or more are possible.

2. I think it may also depend on the meaning (probably idiomatic) of "gates of hades." 
Gates are generally defensive mechanisms, not offensive ones. For the "gates of hades" 
to be the attacker is to ascribe to "gates" a different meaning and function than gates 
usually have, hence my question.



      
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