[B-Greek] Using Greek
Sarah Madden
sarah.r.madden at gmail.com
Wed Mar 11 15:43:54 EDT 2009
Hi, Steve --
A fairly easy illustration of how Greek clarifies something that could be
muddy in English is found in a two-letter word in Matthew 1 at the end of a
long genealogy from Abraham to Jesus. It lists many generations of "begats"
or "was the father of." The word hHS means "of/by whom."
Matt 1:16 -- IAKWB DE EGENNHSEN TON IWSHF TON ANDRA MARIAS, EX
*hHS*EGENNHQH IHSOUS O LEGOMENOS CRISTOS.
Translation: "And Jacob begat/was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary,
by *whom* was born Jesus who is called the Christ/Messiah."
KJV: Matt 1:16A "And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of *whom* was
born Jesus, who is called Christ."
If the English translation uses "whom," it is impossible to tell whether
this refers to one person, to the couple, or whether it is feminine or
masculine. Someone could possible think the text indicates "Jacob and Mary"
as the human source of Jesus' birth, or perhaps Jacob, if you look at the
previous list and it only lists the fathers, or -- by using the Greek -- the
correct answer, Mary. It is only in the Greek that this pronoun is evidently
a feminine singular relative pronoun, which points solely to Mary as the
human parent of Jesus Christ (kind of supports the virgin birth, I think).
Sarah ><>
sarah.r.madden at gmail.com
Maryland
On Wed, Mar 11, 2009 at 2:47 PM, Stephen Lord <ebyon at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> I, too, do not believe everyone needs to know and understand Greek. Good
> exegesis can be done from good translations. But there is the rub, to have
> a good translation, or even evaluate a translation as 'good,' someone has to
> have facility in the original languages.
>
> "where knowledge of the Greek impacts our understanding of certain texts."
>
> I found the TV illustration illuminating (sorry for the poor pun). What
> examples are there of the above, where recourse to Greek helps to clarify,
> correct, or otherwise impact specific texts?
>
> If this is not really an appropriate thread for this list, then please send
> me responses off list so as not to annoy the group. Thank you.
>
> Respectfully,
>
> Stephen C. Lord
>
> ---
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--
Sarah ><>
sarah.r.madden at gmail.com
work: 301.429.8189
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