[B-Greek] AITEW as "Demand"?

George F Somsel gfsomsel at yahoo.com
Mon Sep 14 12:17:56 EDT 2009


καὶ ὅ τι ἂν αἰτήσητε ἐν τῷ ὀνόματί μου τοῦτο ποιήσω, ἵνα δοξασθῇ ὁ πατὴρ ἐν τῷ υἱῷ. 
KAI hO TI AN AITHSHTE EN TWi ONOMATI MOU TOUTO POIHSW, hINA DOCASQHi hO PATHR EN TWi hUIWi
 
One of the glosses for αἰτέω [AITEW] is indeed "demand", but that doesn't mean that it has that connotation in any specific passage.  When Jesus says in Mt 7.9
 
ἢ τίς ἐστιν ἐξ ὑμῶν ἄνθρωπος, ὃν αἰτήσει ὁ υἱὸς αὐτοῦ ἄρτον, μὴ λίθον ἐπιδώσει αὐτῷ;
hH TIS ESTIN EC hUMWN ANQRWPOS hON AITHSEI hH hUIOS AUTOU ARTON, MH LIQON EPIDWSE AUTWi?

are we there to suppose that the putative man's son is DEMANDING food or is he simply asking for food?  Sometimes people will try to apply a possible understanding of a word in order to further some agenda -- in this case, the philosophy of "claiming" something from God.  While children can be rather demanding at times, I think we would probably agree that the concept put forward is that of asking.  Each passage where a particular word is used needs to be examined in its full context in order to come to a conclusion regarding which of the possible understandings is to be applied.  So, it's possible that it might be understood as "demand", but I leave it to you to decide whether that is the understanding of its use envisioned there.  I would encourage you to review the various usages and to see when αἰτέω [AITEW] is used in the sense of "demand" and when it entails simply a request.
 

 george
gfsomsel 


… search for truth, hear truth, 
learn truth, love truth, speak the truth, hold the truth, 
defend the truth till death.


- Jan Hus
_________ 



----- Original Message ----
From: Luke Firth <luke.firth.mail at gmail.com>
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Sunday, September 13, 2009 5:26:13 PM
Subject: [B-Greek] AITEW as "Demand"?

After someone said, looking in a lexicon, that AITEW means to "demand"  
- I had a closer look
(They were trying to justify John 14:13 [see below] as proof for  
'claiming' things in Jesus Name)
Not all lexicons would have "Demand" in their list of relative english  
translations, but some did...

I was wondering (as 'demand' seems out of place in comparison) when it  
is ever appropriate to translate it as "I Demand" ... All of the other  
translations seem to be based around something like - ask for, desire,  
require, request....
"Demand" just seems a little bit strong compared to other  
translations....  ???

John 14:13 "Whatever you DEMAND in my name, this I will do"
... this has obvious implications...

how/when can it be translated as "Demand"?
and when is it obvious that it cannot be?
or is there 2 kinda meanings of this word, one being the 'ask,  
request' chain and the other being the 'require, demand' chain? - and  
how do you know when to use either meaning?



Luke



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