[B-Greek] Double article

Blue Meeksbay bluemeeksbay at yahoo.com
Tue Feb 22 10:43:45 EST 2011


Hi Joe,
 
What George Somsel said is certainly correct. On the other hand, if that is what 
a Greek writer was trying to communicate that would certainly be a way you could 
do it. By using the article you could be emphasizing the identity of the person, 
in this case *the Man,* i.e. Adam.( I do not think *the Man* is ever used of 
David). 

 
What is also interesting is that, as far as I can tell, every use of Son of Man 
in the LXX is anarthrous.  However, this may be because it is *translation 
Greek*. Someone like Albert Pietersma can confirm this, but *Son of Man* in the 
LXX seems to be a Semitic idiom and, as such, the anarthrous construction would 
be a good way to communicate this. In other words, the emphasis is simply being 
a human being – a man.
 
But that is what is all the more interesting.  If the GNT writers were intent on 
using the title Son of Man in the same Semitic manner, (as it was used, for 
example, in Heb. 2:6), it would have been easy for them to simply follow the LXX 
pattern and give it forth without the article. The fact that they didn’t could 
indicate that they were using it in the way you suggest. I believe the title is 
used without the article in just only three or four places in the GNT. In the 
majority of places it carries the article.
 
Some early Christians did believe Jesus was the *promised seed* of the woman 
(Gen. 3:15) – in other words, the Son of the Man (Adam). *If*  the GNT writers 
also believed this, this certainly could have been a way for them to communicate 
that belief. 

 
As to whether such is the case, as you can see, is a matter of opinion and 
cannot be proven or disproven from the grammar alone. However, if you are 
interested in my opinion, (which doesn’t mean much) I would be in the camp of a 
non-idiomatic use, except in those few places like Heb. 2:6 where it seems to be 
used in a Semitic manner to simply mean a human being.
 
Cordially,
Blue Harris

 

________________________________
From: Joe Ripley <joseph.ripley at ntlworld.com>
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Sat, February 19, 2011 4:14:22 PM
Subject: [B-Greek] Double article

Dear List - Does anyone have any thoughts about the use of the double article in 
hO hUIOS TOU ANQRWPOU which Jesus used of himself many times?  He even asked the 
newly healed man who had been born blind, if he knew who "The son of the man 
is". Stephen used it too when he saw Jesus at the right side of God.
In Daniel 7, Revelation 14 and Ezekiel 37 no definite article is used for "son 
of man".
Could it be some Jewish 'code speak' for Messiah, "The man" being perhaps 
understood to be David or maybe Adam?

Joe Ripley
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