Luke 2:14--new question

From: Edward Hobbs (EHOBBS@wellesley.edu)
Date: Fri Dec 27 1996 - 13:46:51 EST


The thread about a month ago on Luke 2:14 mostly focussed on the question of
the right reading among the MSS. This current question is about the structure
of the sentence. IM(not-so-Humble)O, this is beyond dispute, since all of the
canticles in Luke 1-2 are cast in a Habraic/LXX mold, whoever wrote them. (In
my opinion, all were composed by the greatest stylist in the NT, "Luke" [=the
author of Luke-Acts, whatever his friends called him]; this author was able to
write Greek in any style suitable to his narrative, and could even write
"Septuagint"--almost equivalent to a modern author writing in the style of
Shakespeare AND DOING IT WELL.)

The sentence is in fairly standard Hebrew parallelism:

        DOXA EN hUYISTOIS QEWi
        EIRHNH EPI GHS EN ANQRWPOIS EUDOKIAS

If the (perhaps Byzantine) reading is adopted, it works slightly less well:

        DOXA EN hUYISTOIS QEWi
        EIRHNH, EUDOKIA EPI GHS EN ANQRWPOIS

In either case, both clauses understand an equative verb (which of course is
readily deleted).

Edward Hobbs



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