[B-Greek] Rm. 13:3b: "QELEIS..."
Mark Lightman
lightmanmark at yahoo.com
Fri May 29 08:25:22 EDT 2009
You are very observant to notice this. You're right, all the translations I checked
construe it as a question, and the Greek texts of Westcott/Hort, Fodges, and
Robinsom/Pierpont punctuate it as a question. Only NA27/UBS3 has it as
a statement, followed by Zondervan's RGNT. NA 27/UBS3 does not even have
a note. Even the Modern Greek, though carrying no more evidentiary weight than
any other translation, construes it as a question: QELEIS ESU NA MH FOBASAI
THN EXOUSIA;
Of course, the minority view can be correct. But QELEIS X? meaning
X seems to be an established idiom in rhetoric. Cf. James 2:20
QELEIS DE GNWMAI Wi ANQRWPE KENE, hOTI H PISTIS
XWPIS TWN ERGWN ARGH ESTIN? In both cases I would
say the sentence is a question more in tone than anything else.
Mark L.
--- On Fri, 5/29/09, A. J. Birch <AJB1212 at ono.com> wrote:
From: A. J. Birch <AJB1212 at ono.com>
Subject: [B-Greek] Rm. 13:3b: "QELEIS..."
To: "B-Greek" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Friday, May 29, 2009, 12:15 AM
"?? ??? ???????? ??? ????? ????? ?? ????? ???? ???? ?? ????. ?????? ?? ?? ????????? ??? ????????· ?? ?????? ????? ??? ????? ??????? ?? ?????·" (Romans 13:3)
"hOI GAR ARCONTES OUK EISIN FOBOS TWi AGAQWi ERGWi ALLA TWi KAKWi. QELEIS DE MH FOBEISQAI THN EXOUSIAN· TO AGAQON POIEI, KAI hEXEIS EPAINON EX AUTHS·" (Romans 13:3)
My question is about the phrase, "QELEIS DE MH FOBEISQAI THN EXOUSIAN·": all the Bible-versions I've consulted treat this phrase as a question, but my Greek text punctuates it as a statement; is there any GRAMMATICAL basis for either of these 'readings'?
Thankyou,
Andrew J. Birch
Palma de Mallorca, Spain
---
B-Greek home page: http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek
B-Greek mailing list
B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list