[B-Greek] PARA with acc (was. PAR' AUTOU in Luke 18:9-14)
Yancy Smith
yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net
Fri Jul 17 14:58:04 EDT 2009
My apologies to the list for parablebtically writing "PAR' AUTOU" (genitive) instead of PAR' AUTON (accusative)! In this Iver is quite right. In fact, He is more right than I in this respect, and, if one doesn't see rightness as a ratio of right letters to wrong ones, one could adjudicate that he is right and I am not, in absolute terms. Which brings me back to the reading of Luke 18:9-14 and the delicious ambiguity and high irony of the parable, if we can imagine it (as perhaps we should not) in the Jesus' own preaching of the kingdom of God, as distinct from the context in which it is found in Luke. Much like the parable told by Nathan the prophet, this one is a riddle that catches listener up short whether one identifies with the Pharisee or with the Tax Collector. A Jewish hearer of the original parable as told by Jesus might well have done either (depending upon his connection to the Roman occupiers).
Timothy Friedrichson, "The Temple, a Pharisee, a Tax Collector, and the Kingdom of God: Rereading a Jesus Parable (Luke 18:10-14A)," JBL 124.1 (2005): 89-119 has an interesting take on the parable in his rather extensive article.
He notes: Joseph A. Fitzmyer in his commentary recognizes the use of the preposition παρά PARA here is "a mode of expressing the comparative," which is also found in Luke 13:2, 4.65. To these, perhaps Luke 3:13 could be added, even though it specifically has the comparative πλέον with PARA + accusative. These examples appear in special Lukan material and thus cannot be clearly determined to be redactional, although they do indicate a Lukan acceptance of the use of PARA + accusative for the purposes of comparison.
A glance at other major commentators confirms the ambiguity of the phrase and the fact that the Lucan context encourages the exclusive use, "intead of": Fitzmyer, Luke, 2:1188, translates "rather than that other." Jeremias proposes that this usage translates the Aramaic comparison MIN/ Hebrew MY, which could be translated "more justified than the other," though it is "very often used with an exclusive sense (e.g. II Sam. 19.44 . . . ; Ps 45 [LXX 44].8 ... ; Rom. 1.25) ... ,'not to the other'" (Parables, 141-42, followed by, among others, Marshall, Luke, 553, 681). Fitzmyer believes that Jeremias "completely misses the point" (Luke, 2:1188), even though both he and Jeremias translate the phrase in an exclusive sense. For Fitzmyer, however, the use of PARA is "the substitution of a different comparative expression," which uses Hebrew 'AL (2:1188). Nolland sees validity in both sides of this discussion: "Without the Lukan framework it would seem more natural to take PAR' EKEINON as "more than" than as "rather than," but the Lukan context encourages a sharper contrast, and so I have translated as 'rather than' (despite the 'more than' required in 13:2, 4)" (Luke, 2:878).
Here is a case, I believe, where the altered context in Luke also changes how the grammar is parsed. As to middle or passive reading, there would be nothing wrong with understanding God as participating in the evaluation (either by agreeing or disagreeing) if it is seen as middle, as Conrad says, "an example of a righteous man" or even. But if read as passive, it does not have to mean "change of state" in Pauline terms, rather, it may well refer to "change of status" in relative terms. In an agonistic society these evaluations go on all the time. The irony of this, is that the righteousness of the Pharisee, exhibited through assiduous piety leads (in its exemplary force) to the contrition of the Tax Collector. The scandal of the parable is that, for that day at least, the Tax Collector got the more favorable nod by the story teller (and, by implication, God).
-----Original Message-----
From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Iver Larsen
Sent: Friday, July 17, 2009 2:02 AM
To: 'B Greek'
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] PARA with acc (was. PAR' AUTOU in Luke 18:9-14)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Yancy Smith" <yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net>
To: "'B Greek'" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: 17. juli 2009 01:15
Subject: [B-Greek] PAR' AUTOU in Luke 18:9-14
> [Yancy Smith]
>
> I want to register my agreement with Conrad's assessment here about
> the DIK- verbs in this passage and suggest that Luke's quotation of
> Jesus' parable end on a less that "once for all note." That may well
> be because of the way Luke is handling his source. The statement that
> κατέβη οὗτος δεδικαιωμένος εἰς τὸν οἶκον αὐτοῦ παρ᾽ ἐκεῖνον· KATEBH HOUTOS DEDIKAIOMENOS EIS TON OIKON AUTOU PAR'
> EKEINON could and probably should be Englished, "this man went down to
> his house more justified than the other." I understand that BDAG
> recommends the exclusive righteousness idea, "instead of" rather than
> the comparative "more than". However, the idea of comparative
> righteousness in surprising situations is an echo of Gen. 38:26,
> Δεδικαίωται Θαμαρ ἢ ἐγώ DEDIKAWTAI QAMAR H EGW. The delicious irony of
> the Luke's parable, however, is that the good Pharisee's good works
> may well be the impetus that provokes the humble reaction of the Tax
> Collector. A case of transferred merit, as it were! We know the
> Pharisee compares himself with the tax collector. Are we to assume the
> Tax Collector compares himself with the righteous Pharisee? If both
> men compare themselves with one another, God sees the more humble man
> as the more righteous. Read in this way, it becomes a trap of a
> parable, indicting any sort of self exalting pride. As far as I can
> see, the only reason for choosing the exclusive meaning of PAR'AUTOU
> rather than the comparative is the assumption that a Pharisee (qua
> Pharisee) cannot possibly be a righteous person. The brilliant parable
> then becomes a ham-fisted polemic against Pharisees. I can see how
> Luke is complicit in our reading the parable this way, but as Jesus
> would have said it, in the first context, it works better as a comparative. A great discussion of this is found in the popular book by Amy Jill-Levine, _The Misunderstood Jew_.
[Iver:]
First, let me say that I am quite convinced that DEDIKAIWMENOS in Luke 18:14 is intended to be passive in sense rather than middle based on how this verb is used in the GNT. Similarly, DIKAIWQHNAI in Acts 13:38 and DIKAIOUTAI in Acts
13:39 are passives. It is God who justifies people, i.e. he has the right and authority to decide whether a person is considered "righteous" in God's eyes.
BAGD renders PARA in Luke 18:14 as "rather than the other". Another option is "contrary to" which is sense III.6 in BAGD.
I would think that the comparative option is unlikely. Many of the quotes in BAGD III.3 would fit better under III.6.
The Hebrews often spoke in extremes and contrasts. The tax collector left in a state of having been declared righteous, the Pharisee left in a state of having been declared not righteous, rather than less righteous. The text indicates that the Pharisee compared himself to the tax collector, but it also shows that the tax collector did not compare himself to the Pharisee. He did not lift up his eyes, so he was not even aware that the Pharisee was present.
PARA is used in Rom 1:15 where the KJV and its followers like RSV and NIV use "more than" or "rather than" while others like TEV, CEV and NLT use "instead of". The context indicates that the latter is better than the former. They did not serve God at all, but served the created things.
For PARA to be used in a comparative sense, it needs clear support from context.
For instance, in Luke 3:13 we read:
MHDEN PLEON TO DIATETAGMENON hUMIN PRASSETE. It is the PLEON that gives the comparative sense.
In Luke 13:2 and 4, we have the description/adjective hAMARTWLOI and PARA in the basic sense of "beyond" probably indicates a comparison. But is also possible to think of it contrastively: Do you think that these were sinners and all the others are not?
I don't consider Gen 38:16 particularly relevant, partly because PARA is not used in the LXX, partly because it is a different sense of DIKAIOW. But even here, the contrastive use of hH is likely: She was in the right, I was not.
Iver Larsen
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