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αὐτοὺς in Mt 28:19-20.

Posted: May 23rd, 2020, 10:04 am
by Gustav Berloty
Hello,

Here are the Mt 28:19-20 greek verses from the WH critical text :

"πορευθέντες οὖν μαθητεύσατε πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, βαπτίζοντες αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος, διδάσκοντες αὐτοὺς τηρεῖν πάντα ὅσα ἐνετειλάμην ὑμῖν· καὶ ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ μεθ᾽ ὑμῶν εἰμὶ πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας ἕως τῆς συντελείας τοῦ αἰῶνος."

I was asking what αὐτοὺς is referencing to ? Because, πάντα τὰ ἔθνη is neuter not masculine as αὐτοὺς is.

My idea is that αὐτοὺς is referencing to the μᾰθηταί (masculine) implicitly made by "μαθητεύσατε". Do you agree with that idea ?

Thanks you all.

Re: αὐτοὺς in Mt 28:19-20.

Posted: May 23rd, 2020, 2:18 pm
by Stirling Bartholomew
Gustav Berloty wrote: May 23rd, 2020, 10:04 am Here are the Mt 28:19-20 greek verses from the WH critical text :

"πορευθέντες οὖν μαθητεύσατε πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, βαπτίζοντες αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος, διδάσκοντες αὐτοὺς τηρεῖν πάντα ὅσα ἐνετειλάμην ὑμῖν· καὶ ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ μεθ᾽ ὑμῶν εἰμὶ πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας ἕως τῆς συντελείας τοῦ αἰῶνος."

I was asking what αὐτοὺς is referencing to ? Because, πάντα τὰ ἔθνη is neuter not masculine as αὐτοὺς is.

My idea is that αὐτοὺς is referencing to the μᾰθηταί (masculine) implicitly made by "μαθητεύσατε". Do you agree with that idea ?
I think you have presented one reasonable alternative out of several for understanding what's going on here. In thinking about the implied scenario, I noted that Henry Alford[1] suggests πάντα τὰ ἔθνη refers to everyone including Jews. I think the implied object of the participle βαπτίζοντες might be gender inclusive ἀνθρώπους. This alternative isn't substantially different from your suggestion.

[1] https://biblehub.com/commentaries/alford/matthew/28.htm

Re: αὐτοὺς in Mt 28:19-20.

Posted: May 23rd, 2020, 3:26 pm
by Bruce McKinnon
I see no difficulty with αὐτοὺς referring to πάντα τὰ ἔθνη. τὰ ἔθνη is grammatically neuter but in reality refers to people/human beings, hence the use of the masculine αὐτοὺς used substantively.

Re: αὐτοὺς in Mt 28:19-20.

Posted: May 23rd, 2020, 4:17 pm
by Gustav Berloty
Thanks for your answers!

Re: αὐτοὺς in Mt 28:19-20.

Posted: May 24th, 2020, 9:29 am
by Barry Hofstetter
It's a simple constructio ad sensum, since, as Stirling points out, nations consist of ἄνθρωποι, "people." This kind of ad sensum is fairly common in Greek.

Re: αὐτοὺς in Mt 28:19-20.

Posted: May 26th, 2020, 6:54 pm
by Gustav Berloty
Thanks for the information!