[B-Greek] Mark 7:18-19
Albert Pietersma
albert.pietersma at sympatico.ca
Sun Nov 1 07:33:27 EST 2009
Iver,
What strikes me as worthy of note, however, is that v. 20 reads ELEGEN
DE. While after the author's comment (KAQARIZWN PANTA TA BRWMATA) one
expects the verb of speaking to be restated, the use DE seems
surprising if KAQARIZWN refers to Jesus. For in that case the
grammatical subject in v.20 is the same as in v. 19, and the topic
continues, seemingly without a shift in focus. For comparison see
e.g., 7:9.
Al
On Nov 1, 2009, at 1:39 AM, Iver Larsen wrote:
> IL: My comments interspersed:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Wieland Willker" <wie at uni-bremen.de>
> To: "B-Greek" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
> Sent: 31. oktober 2009 23:17
> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Mark 7:18-19
>
>
> Chris Caragounis comments on the passage in his "Development
> of Greek and the NT", 2004, p. 538-41. He writes:
>
> "On the other hand, the alternative reading KAQARIZON would
> constitute the last of a long line of verbal forms
> (EISPOREUOMENOI, DUNATAI, KOINWSAI, OUK EISPOREUETAI,
> EKPOREUETAI) that have PAN TO as their subject. In this
> case, the meaning would be: 'whatever enters into a man from
> outside cannot defile him, since it does not enter his
> heart, but his stomach, and goes out to the latrine purging
> all foods.' This way of construing KAQARIZON is
> syntactically unexceptionable.
> ------------------------------
> IL: But semantically and contextually unacceptable as has been said
> by others.
> ---------------------------------------
>
> This seems to be the
> understanding of the other alternatives (D, it, Sy-S)
> mentioned above. The expression PAN TO refers to the
> imagined uncleanness that one receives when eating with
> unwashed hands.
> -------------------
> IL: But the "washing of hands" is not the theme of the passage, only
> an occasion
> for the discussion/teaching of Jesus. Jesus is comparing the ritual
> purity laws
> added by the Pharisees and scribes (v. 5 and 8), which focus on
> external
> acceptabiltiy, and the inner "cleanness" of the heart and thoughts.
> KAQARIZW as
> used in the NT refers to making somebody "clean" and acceptable
> either to the
> society (in the case of lepers) or to God. The Pharisees focus on an
> outward
> physical and ritual "cleansing", but Jesus wants to turn the focus
> to inner
> "cleanness" as in the related passage in Mat 23:25-26.
> ----------------------
> The exit of the waste from the body was
> understood in antiquity as a cleansing or a purging. It must
> be pointed out that precisely the verb KAQAITW/KAQARIZW
> along with a number of other words derived from the same
> stem, were used in ancient medicine of the purging of the
> stomach (KOILIA). ...
> -----------------------
> IL: That may be true, but it is completely irrelevant for the
> passage at hand,
> since it does not talk about purging the stomach.
> ----------------
>
> The language used here would,
> consequently, be a natural way of expressing the view that
> whatever unclean had entered into a man also came out
> together with the other foods, and thus the KOILIA was
> purged of them all. ... But precisely because this reading
> gives good sense it may have been a deliberate correction
> (though not necessarily) for the difficult reading of the
> masculine participle. ...
> -----------------------------
> IL: The conclusion is faulty, because it is based on a faulty
> premise. The
> reading does not give good sense. It is unlikely to be a deliberate
> correction,
> but rather a careless mistake by a copyist who couldn't see the
> forest (KAI
> LEGEI) for the trees (the embeded discourse from hOUTWS to
> EKPOREUETAI).
> ------------------
>
> All things considered, the present
> state of the (especially external) evidence renders the
> chosen reading the better alternative, albeit not thoroughly
> satisfactory."
> -----------------------
> IL: It is completely satisfactory. The "parenthesis by the author"
> theory is
> probably caused by the desire to make a smooth translation in
> English. When the
> author says "KAI LEGEI AUTOUS" the author is speaking. Anything
> except reported
> speech is the author speaking. It is not parenthetical, because it
> is the main
> point made by Jesus. In a sense it is more of a comment by the
> author than just
> reporting objectively what happened, but then the comment starts
> with KAI LEGEI
> AUTOUS. The comment needs to be a full sentence, not a fragment. The
> gospels are
> rarely simply reporting events in objective newspaper style, but the
> author has
> an agenda/purpose which is seen either through his comments, his
> choice of words
> or his choice of what to include.
> We have the speech/teaching of Jesus reported in v. 15. v. 18-19 is
> a rehash of
> 15, where Jesus explains the point more fully to the disciples. The
> present
> participle KAQARIZWN goes nicely with the main verb LEGEI as a
> contemporary
> event: As Jesus made this statement, (which happens to be in the
> form of a
> rhetorical question), he declared that all types of food are
> ritually clean,
> Mark tells us, i.e. don't worry what you eat, but worry about what
> comes out
> from the heart/mind. I think that if people cannot connect KAI LEGEI
> with
> KAQARIZWN, then they have too short an attention span, and that
> often happens to
> copyists. The neuter participle is apparently a fairly late reading.
> (The Greek
> witnesses quoted in NA are from the 9th century onwards.)
>
> It is unfortunate that some editors punctuated the text wrongly. The
> question
> mark after BRWMATA in NA 27 is a recent mistake, but I don't know in
> which
> version of NA it first occurred. It would have helped to put the
> question mark
> after EKPOREUETAI where it belongs. According to the NA 27
> apparatus, this is
> how Origen and Chrysostom understood it. The NA 25 apparatus says that
> Westcott-Hort (1895) had the question mark after AKPOREUETAI.
>
> Iver Larsen
>
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—
Albert Pietersma PhD
21 Cross Street,
Weston ON Canada M9N 2B8
Email: albert.pietersma at sympatico.ca
Homepage: http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~pietersm
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