[B-Greek] Translating Hebrews 11:11

Daniel Buck bucksburg at yahoo.com
Tue Apr 28 16:08:53 EDT 2009


The translator of Hebrews 11:11 is faced with a few textual problems, but primarily with the choice between Abraham and Sarah as the subject. My question is, which, if any, of the textual variants in the Greek text settle the question?

The main variant is the presence or absence of words modifying SARRA:
καὶ αὐτὴ Σάρρα στεῖρα kai auth sarra steira] p46  D*  Ψ 
καὶ αὐτὴ Σάρρα ἡ στεῖρα ka auth sarra h steira] D1 6 81 88  424c  1241  1739 1881 1962 
Σάρρα ἡ στεῖρα καὶ αὐτὴ sarra h steira kai auth] 0150 
καὶ αὐτὴ Σάρρα στεῖρα οὖσα kai auth sarra steira ousa] P  075  104 256 263  365  436 459 1319  1573  1912 1984  2127 (2495 Σάρα sara) l596 
καὶ αὐτὴ Σάρρα kai auth sarra] p13vid ‭א A D2 K  L  33  181 326 330  424* 451 614 629 630 1175 1852  1877 2200  2492  Byz  Lect 
 
There's another variant which I can't locate in a ms but is given as a marginal reading in WH, which is to change the accents put αὐτὴ Σάρρα auth sarra in the dative case.
 
ἡλικίας ἔτεκεν hlikias eteken] ‭א2 D2 Byz  I won't get into this variant because the NLT translates 'have a child' even without it.
 
So, which of the above readings would render which of  these translations impossible?
 
By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the
age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. ESV

By faith Abraham, even though he was past age--and Sarah herself was
barren--received the ability to procreate since he considered that the One who
had promised was faithful. CSBm



      



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