Matthew 21:8 ὁ δὲ πλεῖστος ... ἄλλοι δὲ

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Jonathan Robie
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Matthew 21:8 ὁ δὲ πλεῖστος ... ἄλλοι δὲ

Post by Jonathan Robie »

Matthew 21 wrote:8 ὁ δὲ πλεῖστος ὄχλος ἔστρωσαν ἑαυτῶν τὰ ἱμάτια ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ, ἄλλοι δὲ ἔκοπτον κλάδους ἀπὸ τῶν δένδρων καὶ ἐστρώννυον ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ.
How should I understand the superlative πλεῖστος here? In opposition to ἄλλοι δὲ - "most of the crowd" ... "others"? Some translations render ὁ δὲ πλεῖστος ὄχλος as "a very large crowd". Are both interpretations equally valid?
ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;
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cwconrad
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Re: Matthew 21:8 ὁ δὲ πλεῖστος ... ἄλλοι δὲ

Post by cwconrad »

Jonathan Robie wrote:
Matthew 21 wrote:8 ὁ δὲ πλεῖστος ὄχλος ἔστρωσαν ἑαυτῶν τὰ ἱμάτια ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ, ἄλλοι δὲ ἔκοπτον κλάδους ἀπὸ τῶν δένδρων καὶ ἐστρώννυον ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ.
How should I understand the superlative πλεῖστος here? In opposition to ἄλλοι δὲ - "most of the crowd" ... "others"? Some translations render ὁ δὲ πλεῖστος ὄχλος as "a very large crowd". Are both interpretations equally valid?
I'm reminded of Heraclitus' dictum, "οἱ πλεῖστοι ἄνθρωποι κακοί". On a more serious note, this is not a μὲν ... δέ antithetsis, but rather a sequence of observations, so that πλεῖστος ὄχλος doesn't stand in contrast to ἄλλοι. Moreover the superlative πλεῖστος may simply indicate a "very sizable crowd" rather than "the majority of the crowd" (although the latter is possible, acc. to BDAG). I think that the sense is, "in addition to a sizable crowd, there were people who were strewing that pavement with shrubbery."
οὔτοι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν,
ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητέοντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον. (Xenophanes, Fragment 16)

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
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