Re: Grammar in Mt 6 and 7

From: David Moore (dvdmoore@dcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us)
Date: Sun Dec 31 1995 - 15:43:19 EST


On Sat, 30 Dec 1995, Kenneth Litwak wrote:

> Mt 7:11 mh liqon epidwsei au. This is a question, at least
> according to UBS punctuation. So it looks like Jesus asks,
> "Who of you does not give him a stone?" Obviously, that's not right.
> So, instead, I'm inclined to fall back on what I was told in 2nd yr. Greek,
> that ou introduces questions expecting a positive answer and mh is
> used for questions assuing a negative answer, although after the reading I've done
> in Porter I'm not usre anything I learned in 3 years of Greek has any validity except paradigms). Should that be the understanding of mh here?
> "Who of you, if his son asks for bread,
> he will not give him a stone will he? Of course not" Is that how
> others would understand it?

        Isn't this what's referred to as a rhetorical question? Your
extrapolations from second-year Greek seem correct. Some languages have a
construction that implies a negative answer to the question posed. In
Spanish, for instance, such a question might begin with "_Acaso_....." In
English, we might say something like, "Would you be likely to give him a
stone?" (So Phillips) which in the context would pretty clearly indicate a
negative answer is expected.

David L. Moore Southeastern Spanish District
Miami, Florida of the Assemblies of God
dvdmoore@dcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us Department of Education
http://members.aol.com/dvdmoore



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