[B-Greek] The verb usage in Matt 16:19

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Fri Jan 8 08:34:17 EST 2010


On Jan 8, 2010, at 6:58 AM, Jay Adkins wrote:
> Matt 16:19 (GNT) DWSW SOI KLEIDAS THS BASILEIAS TWN OURANWN, KAI hO EAN DHSHS
> EPI THS GHS ESTAI DEDEMENON EN TOIS OURANOIS, KAI O EAN LUSHS EPI THS GHS
> ESTAI LELUMENON EN TOIS OURANOIS.
> 
> Matt 16:19 (NASU) "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and
> whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you
> loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven."
> Matt 16:19 (NIV) I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever
> you bind on earth will be {[19] Or have been} bound in heaven, and whatever
> you loose on earth will be {[19] Or have been} loosed in heaven."
> Matt 16:19 (NKJV) "And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven,
> and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you
> loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
> Matt 16:19 (NRA) I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and
> whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose
> on earth will be loosed in heaven."
> Matt 16:19 (WEY) I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of the Heavens; and
> whatever you bind on earth shall remain bound in Heaven, and whatever you
> loose on earth shall remain loosed in Heaven."
> Matt 16:19 (YLT) and I will give to thee the keys of the reign of the
> heavens, and whatever thou mayest bind upon the earth shall be having been
> bound in the heavens, and whatever thou mayest loose upon the earth shall be
> having been loosed in the heavens.'
> Matt 16:19 (NASB) "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and
> whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you
> shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
> Matt 16:19 (BBE) I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and
> whatever is fixed by you on earth will be fixed in heaven: and whatever you
> make free on earth will be made free in heaven.
> Matt 16:19 (HCS) I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and
> whatever you bind on earth is already bound  in heaven, and whatever you
> loose on earth is already loosed  in heaven."
> Matt 16:19 (WEB) I will give to you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and
> whatever you will bind on earth will be bound in heaven; and whatever you
> will loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
> Matt 16:19 (ESV) I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and
> whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose
> on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
> 
> The question in translating this verse is how we handle the verbs.  We have
> two separate verbs, used twice each, a Subjunctive followed by a Perfect,
> Passive, Participle.  In this list of translations, many {NIV, NKJV, NRA,
> ESV, and with only a slight change in the terms BBE} follow the basic
> pattern of;
> 
> ”whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven.”
> 
> Those that differ are;
> NASU whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven
> WEY  whatever you bind on earth shall remain bound in Heaven
> YLT whatever thou mayest bind upon the earth shall be having been bound in
> the heavens
> NASB whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven
> HCS  whatever you bind on earth is already bound  in heaven,
> WEB whatever you will bind on earth will be bound in heaven
> 
> Comparing translations as I do seems to be a good practice when
> translating.  It is not, however, a magical means to determine what a
> particular text says.  We can not count up the votes as it were an election
> process.  Just because a clear majority appear to agree does not make them
> correct.  Mob rule always has its problems and is an especially poor means
> to find truth.  What it can do is point out where a problem lies.
> 
> Sorry for the digression.

All very true. Unless you decide the issues for yourself by yourself, you
have to rely upon the views of another or others -- but who do you trust
to have a sound view? Probably somebody who shares your assumptions
or presuppositions. How do you discern that? That's up to you, of course.

> My question is how do we treat these verbs in this context and why?  What
> rules of syntax apply?

There are at least two ways to understand these future perfect passives,
in my opinion:

(1) On the one hand, you can interpret them to mean that the choices/decisions
made by the ecclesiasatical authorities will be consistent with the way things
are already fixed in the heavenly lawbooks, so to speak. That is to say, it is
impossible for ecclesiastical authorities on earth to reach decisions that haven't
already been fixed in Heaven. Read this way, such decisions would seem to
be actions of puppets on earth who only go through a show of exercising
authority.

(2) On the other hand, you can interpret them to mean that, when they make
these choices/decisons, they can be confident that their choices/decisions will
indeed be ratified in Heaven. This would be assurance that the holders of
the keys of the kingdom have genuine authority. I think this is more likely
the intent of the Jesus-saying as here set forth in Matthew.

It would probably be worth while to consider the formulation in John 20:22-23
 καὶ τοῦτο εἰπὼν ἐνεφύσησεν καὶ λέγει αὐτοῖς· λάβετε πνεῦμα ἅγιον·  
23 ἄν τινων ἀφῆτε τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἀφέωνται αὐτοῖς, ἄν τινων κρατῆτε 
κεκράτηνται. 
[ KAI TOUTO EIPWN ENEFUSHSEN KAI LEGEI AUTOIS· LABETE 
PNEUMA hAGION·  23 AN TINWN AFHTE TAS hAMARTIAS AFEWNTAI 
AUTOIS, AN TINWN KRATHTE KEKRATHNTAI]

Here the result-clauses are in the perfect passive indicative: "they stand forgiven;
they stand confirmed."

There's been discussion of these problems in this forum before. Cf.
http://tinyurl.com/ydfa2p4

But I've always wondered how many go away from reviews of this question
feeling fully satisfied that the questions have been fully resolved.



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






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