[B-Greek] Translating Hebrews 11:11

George F Somsel gfsomsel at yahoo.com
Wed Apr 29 16:53:11 EDT 2009


If you review some of the variants originally posted, you will note that one variant, namely στειρα ουσα STEIRA OUSA seems to understand the passage in precisely the manner Metzger suggests -- as a circumstantial clause.
 george
gfsomsel 


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________________________________
From: Tom Moore <tom at katabiblon.com>
To: Iver Larsen <iver_larsen at sil.org>; Daniel Buck <bucksburg at yahoo.com>; b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 3:16:39 PM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Translating Hebrews 11:11

Iver,

You say "The t.t. definition in BAGD and BDAG appears to be completely alien to and irrelevant for the NT and LXX.... When the reference is to "sperm" in the LXX, it is consistenly rendered KOITH SPERMATOS, never SPERMATOS alone and never in connection with KATABOLH. (See LEV 15:16, 17, 18, 32, LEV 18:20, LEV 19:20, LEV 22:4, NUM 5:13, WIS 3:16)."  

But Metzger says that "the expression DUNAMIN EIS KATABOLHN SPERMATOS ELABEN is *regularly* used of the male in begetting." (I've posted Metzger's comments in full at the end.) 

In which case, isn't possible that the author of Hebrews couldn't even imagine it being applied to Sarah (and therefore relevant)?

Even BDAG, though it does say within its discussion of KATABOLH KOSMOU, that "she received the ability to establish a posterity"..."*may* be the mng. of Heb 11:11," goes on to devote a whole paragraph to the technical term, so BDAG seems to me to be very tentative about the first option.

LSJ has "throwing down: hence, sowing, Corp.Herm.9.6; esp. of begetting, Philol.13, Luc.Am.19, cf. Ep.Hebr.11.11, Arr.Epict.1.13.3" (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph.jsp?l=katabolh&la=greek).

For me, my problem was never with the first part of the verse; I initially assumed Sarah was the subject and assumed from context that KATABOLHN SPERMATOS meant to conceive (rather than to found a posterity). Rather, I stumbled over the last clause EPEI PISTON hHGHSATO TON EPAGGEILAMENON, because I couldn't reconcile Hebrews' assertion that it was Sarah's faith with the Genesis account (unless the author did mean Abraham's faith and presumed the subject shift would be obvious to his audience). I would even characterize Sarah's reaction after the birth of Isaac in Gn. 21:7 as one of near disbelief.

But if "to throw down seed" is a regular meaning of KATABOLHN SPERMATOS, such that the author of Hebrews couldn't even imagine it being applied to Sarah, then suddenly there is no confusion as to whose faith he meant because there would be no confusion as to who the subject is.

My questions are 1) is the t.t. definition irrelevant despite Metzger's assertion that it is regulary used? 2) If we understand the expression to apply to Sarah, is Hebrews' assertion that it was Sarah's faith not itself problematic?

Regards,
Tom

Metzger on Hebrews 11.11:

"The difficulties of this verse are well known (for example, in Greek the expression δύναμιν εἰς καταβολὴν σπέρματος ἔλαβεν is regularly used of the male in begetting, not the female in conceiving) and have led some scholars (including F. Field, Windisch, Zuntz) to suggest that καὶ αὐτὴ Σάρρα στεῖρα is an early gloss that somehow got into the text. Appreciating the lexical difficulty, but unwilling to emend the text, a majority of the Committee understood the words καὶ αὐτὴ Σάρρα στεῖρα to be a Hebraic circumstantial clause, thus allowing Ἀβραάμ (ver. 8) to serve as subject of ἔλαβεν ("by faith, even though Sarah was barren, he [Abraham] received power to beget...").

"It is also possible to construe the words AUTH SARRA STEIRA [printed in uncial script -tm] as a dative of accompaniment (in uncial script iotas subscript are ordinarily not indicated), so that the sentence runs, "By faith he [Abraham] also, together with barren Sarah, received power to beget..."

"A second problem involves στεῖρα, which is absent from several important witnesses ([omitted -tm]). Although admitting that the word might have been added as an interpretative gloss in an ancestor of [omitted -tm], a majority of the Committee regarded it as more likely that the word dropped out through transcriptional oversight (SARRACTEIRA [printed in uncial -tm]). It was agreed that ἡ ([omitted -tm]) and οὖσα ([omitted -tm]) are obviously secondary."

Bruce M. Metzger
A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd Ed., pg. 602.



>  -------Original Message-------
>  From: Iver Larsen <iver_larsen at sil.org>
>  Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Translating Hebrews 11:11
>  Sent: Apr 29 '09 15:57
>  
>  Sorry, for the final PARABOLH, read KATABOLH, which you would probably do anyway.
>  
>  Iver Larsen
>  ...
>  In fact, when the reference is to "sperm" in the LXX, it is
>  > consistenly rendered KOITH SPERMATOS, never SPERMATOS alone and never in connection with PARABOLH.
>  > (See LEV 15:16, 17, 18, 32, LEV 18:20, LEV 19:20, LEV 22:4, NUM 5:13, WIS 3:16).
>  
>  
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