[B-Greek] Matthew 16:18 - two questions
Elizabeth Kline
kline_dekooning at earthlink.net
Sun Jul 20 15:58:19 EDT 2008
On Jul 20, 2008, at 11:51 AM, Eric S. Weiss wrote:
> 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.
Matthew 16:18 - KAGW DE SOI LEGW hOTI SU EI PETROS, KAI EPI TAUTHi THi
PETRAi OIKODOMHSW MOU THN EKKLHSIAN KAI PULAI hADOU OU
KATISCUSOUSIN AUTHS.
PULAI hADOU can be understood as the power of death. The figurative
reference is certainly not to 'Hell' but to Hades which was the region
of the dead. I would agree with France (Matt. 2007) and others that
PULAI hADOU is not used here to represent an aggressive attacker of
THS EKKLHSIAS, as if Hades were spewing out demonic forces to attack
HN EKKLHSIAN. Rather, the idea is that the power of death, which
appears to be invincible will fail and the EKKLHSIA will prevail.
Elizabeth Kline
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