Errors in Mounce's Basics of Biblical Greek
Posted: June 4th, 2021, 8:56 am
I recently read Mounce's Basics of Biblical Greek from cover to cover as a refresher, excluding only the index at the back, and came across some errors of various types, four of which are mentioned below (the first of which is just a typo).
- 1. Page 138, line 15--hollakis should be pollakis.
2. Page 329, line 14--the second "protasis" should read as "apodosis."
3. Page 340, line 14--Translations are said to be "one step" removed from what Jesus said. Actually they are two steps removed since Jesus spoke in Aramaic and his sayings are recorded in Greek, which is already one step removed from the original.
4. On page 334, section 36.6, Mounce writes
The above is an error that you would not expect someone of Mounce's knowledge to make. Grammatically, there is no objection to rendering θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος as "the word was a god," and it is exegetical considerations that require "the word was God" as the correct translation. When this clause is translated "the word was a god," θεὸς is taken in a non-definite, countable sense (cf. John 10:34 [Ἐγὼ εἶπα · Θεοί ἐστε;]).The primary function of the article is not to make a word definite. For example, proper names are definite without the article. This is also why Jehovah Witnesses' [sic] understanding of John 1:1 is wrong. θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος means, "the Word was God," not "a god," even though the article does not occur before θεὸς.
I would like to see Mounce render the sentence "And Zeus was a god" into Greek.