[b-greek] Re: Matthew 19:28

From: Iver Larsen (iver_larsen@sil.org)
Date: Wed Feb 06 2002 - 03:12:32 EST


> Dear Carl,
>
> Thank you for your explanation. Hans was kind enough to ask the
> question on
> my behalf when I had not yet joined the list. I am a newbie on this list,
> and by no means an accomplished Greek scholar. Still, raking my head over
> this Scripture, I was wondering whether, purely looking at the
> Grammer, one could also translate as follows:
>
> "When the Son of Man is seated ..., those who have followed me by means of
> the New Birth, ..." ?
>
> The reason I ask, is because the one other instance of palingenesia, in
> Titus 3:5, "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but
> according to His Mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration
> [palingenesia] and renewing of the Holy Spirit," really seems to point to
being
> born again.
>
> Simply from a grammatical point of few, I therefore wonder whether the
> translation, such as I suggested it, is at all possible?

Carl has already explained why the temporal sense is the correct one.
But let me give you a bit of linguistic advice.
In order to help you better understand the Greek text, or any text, forget
about "PURELY looking at the grammar" and "SIMPLY from a grammatical point
of view". I assume you understand "grammar" to be equivalent to lexicon and
syntax.

In Titus 3:5 the word is indeed used in the sense you mention, but in Matt
19:28 the context makes it clear that it is used in a different sense. It is
still within the general idea of "regeneration", but a different kind of
regeneration.

You would also benefit from a careful study of a good dictionary like Bauer,
Danker, Arndt, Gingrich which will give you the two senses of this verse and
where each sense is used. The Louw and Nida dictionary will give you the
same two senses. These dictionaries are not perfect and without blemish. I
would say they are about 99% correct, and one would need strong arguments or
new linguistic insights to challenge them.

Best wishes,
Iver Larsen


---
B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
You are currently subscribed to b-greek as: [jwrobie@mindspring.com]
To unsubscribe, forward this message to leave-b-greek-327Q@franklin.oit.unc.edu
To subscribe, send a message to subscribe-b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu




This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:37:17 EDT