[B-Greek] More thanks or more tongues? 1Cor14:18

George F Somsel gfsomsel at yahoo.com
Tue Dec 15 11:54:14 EST 2009


Εὐχαριστῶ τῷ θεῷ, πάντων ὑμῶν μᾶλλον γλώσσαις λαλῶ·
EUXARISTW TWi QEWi PANTWN hUMOWN MALLON GLWSSAIS LALW.

Just a matter of curiosity dealing with what understanding one would gain from such a proposal as yours that Paul might be saying "I thank my God more than any of you ..."  What would be his purpose in stating that his is more thankful than they?  People always write things with a purpose, and I simply can't see such a statement as something that he would be interested in setting forth.  On the other hand, to say that he speaks more tongues than they would definitely add to his statement that it is more worthwhile to speak 5 words with understanding.  Texts must be read not only with attention to the grammatical relationships but also with attention to what the author is attempting to state.  As I began, why would he say that he is more thankful than the Corinthians?
 george
gfsomsel 


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


- Jan Hus
_________ 




________________________________
From: "bgreek at global4.freeserve.co.uk" <bgreek at global4.freeserve.co.uk>
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Tue, December 15, 2009 9:35:31 AM
Subject: [B-Greek] More thanks or more tongues? 1Cor14:18

On Tue Dec 15 09:32:49 CST 2009, Carl Conrad <cwconrad2 at mac.com> wrote:

> 
> On Dec 15, 2009, at 7:01 AM, bgreek at global4.freeserve.co.uk wrote:
>> a couple of basic questions about this verse...
>> 
>> EUCARISTW TW QEW PANTWN hUMWN MALLON GLWSSAIS LALW
>> 
>> is generally translated along the lines:
>> 
>> I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you (NIV)
>> 
>> Is it acceptable to translate this
>> 
>> "I thank God more than all of you, that I speak in tongues", or does the word order or other consideration not allow this?
>> 
>> Also, in the Elzevir 1624 edn, the Greek is different from the Nestle:
>> 
>> EUCARISTW TW QEW MOU PANTWN hUMWN MALLON GLWSSAIS LALWN
>> 
>> Can this be translated:
>> "I thank my God (by means of) speaking in tongues more than any of you"
>> 
>> In some ways this seems to fit the context better as in vs16-17, Paul is talking about an individual speaking in tongues as giving thanks to God, to then say "I use tongues to give thanks to God more than any of you" fits logically - but I am not sure whether Greek permits this.
> 
> Do you mean, "I thank my God more than any of you (does) when I speak in tongues?" I think that PANTWN hUMWN can only be construed with MALLON.
> NA27/USB4 place a comma after QEWi, rightly, I think. And I think that verse 19 makes much more sense if verse 17 is understood as an affirmation on Paul's part that he does speak in tongues more than any of the Corinthian congregation.
> 
> Carl W. Conrad
> Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
> 

The first question is whether PANTWN hUMWN MALLON can be referring to EUCARISTW TW QEWi, or whether it must be referring to GLWSSAIS LALW - i.e. whether the emphasis can be "I thank God more than any of you does..." or whether it must be "...that I speak in tongues more than any of you does"

If the emphasis can be on "I thank God more than any of you does", then a supplementary question is whether:
(esp from the Elzevir 1624 version with the use of the participle LALWN)
"I thank my God more than any of you (does) when I speak in tongues"
is as acceptable as:
"I thank my God more than any of you (does) that I speak in tongues"

Adrian Clark
---
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