[B-Greek] Mark 2:9-10 EUKOPOTERON
Carl Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Tue Mar 23 07:40:03 EDT 2010
On Mar 23, 2010, at 7:04 AM, yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net wrote:
> What insight can grammar, semantics and "context" give to help understand the meaning of the question in Mark 2:9
> τί ἐστιν εὐκοπώτερον, εἰπεῖν τῷ παραλυτικῷ· ἀφίενταί σου αἱ ἁμαρτίαι, ἢ εἰπεῖν· ἔγειρε καὶ ἆρον τὸν κράβαττόν σου καὶ περιπάτει;
> TI ESTIN EUKOPWTERON, EIPEIN TWi PARALYTIKWi: AFIENTAI SOU hAI AMARTIAI, H EIPEIN: EGEIRE KAI ARON TON KRABATTON SOU KAI PERIPATEI?
>
> More specifically, how is one to understand the relative difficulty (DUSKOLIA?) or easiness (EUMAREIA?) of the two utterances? Most of the commentaries published after the 1950's I have surveyed take EUKOPWTERON as referring to evidence, susceptibility of proof. That is, it was "easier" for Jesus to say "Your sins are forgiven" because it could not be demonstrated either way. This was also Chrysostom's view in his several references to this passage. Several 19th century commentaries take the view that neither statement is "easier" for Jesus to say, I suppose on theological grounds. I am not interested in the theological potential of this statement, rather, how is makes sense in context. It seems that vital information is missing in 9-10.
>
> Carl, you may need to help me discern whether this less a Greek question and more a translation issue.
No, I don't think it's a translation issue; I think it's a matter of understanding the content of the text, the Greek of which is clear enough. We can argue about this and come to different conclusions. The problem lies in how the evangelist tells and phrases his narrative and it really doesn't have anything to do with the Greek text -- the problem exists just as clearly in any decent English (or other-language) version; it's a problem of understanding the intent of Mark's narrative. I've had my own say on this in my "brief commentary" (http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/Mark/). I think the story concerns the question of what is involved in caring for one who is unwell -- but reading the Greek plays no special role in that.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
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