[B-Greek] Matthew 8.7

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sat Mar 7 20:44:47 EST 2009


On Mar 7, 2009, at 6:25 PM, Thomas Hagen wrote:

> This is my very first question and I'm not sure how to address all  
> of you potential readers. How about "Dear B-Greekers"?
>
> Well, I'm interested in knowing how strong the argument is for  
> considering Jesus' words in Matthew 8:7 - "εγω ελθων  
> θεραπεύσω αυτόν / EGW  ELQWN  QERAPEUSW  AUTON" - a  
> question rather than a statement.
>
> Thank you for any help you can give me -

I don't really see anything in the context that suggests that it is a  
question. But perhaps you are deriving that understanding from the  
participle  ἀποκριθεὶς [APOKRIQEIS] in what follows  
immediately (8 καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς ὁ  
ἑκατόνταρχος ἔφη· κύριε, οὐκ εἰμὶ  
ἱκανὸς ἵνα ... [KAI APOKRIQEIS hO hEKATONTARCOS EFH: KURIE,  
OUK EIMI hIKANOS hINA ... ]). While it is true that APOKRINOMAI may be  
used of answering a question, it is also quite frequent as a simple  
indicator of a reply. Actually APOKRIQEIS is redundant here with EFH;  
it's more or less traditional to English this as "he answered and  
said ... " or "he said in reply." I think this is really a Semitism  
that's not standard Greek. I personally think that Jesus' statement is  
straightforward declaration: "I'll come and cure him."

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Ret)




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