[B-Greek] Mark 2:9-10 EUKOPOTERON

Jeffrey B Gibson jgibson000 at comcast.net
Tue Mar 23 09:42:21 EDT 2010


On 3/23/2010 6:04 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 EUKOPOTERON 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.
>    


To my mind, it is an inter-textuality question since I think you might 
find your perceived difficulty solved once you take into account the 
fact that  Mark has cast Jesus' offer to make something happen --- which 
as I have argued in my "Jesus' Refusal to Produce a 'Sign' (Mk. 
8:11-13)", /Journal for the Study of the New Testament/  38 (1990, 
37-66), is what's going on here -- in such a way as to call to mind the 
similar offer on the part of Isaiah in the story of the healing of 
Hezekiah in 2 Kings 20.1-11. According to Mark, Jesus, like Isaiah, 
points out two courses of action that he is willing to take to meet the 
skepticism that he has encountered on account of his proclamation that 
the sins of the paralytic are forgiven (cp. Mk 2.9 with 2 Kings 20.9). 
Also, as does Isaiah, Jesus allows the decision as to which course of 
action he is to take to to show that the son of man has authority on 
earth to forgive sins be made for him. Finally, note the verbal 
resemblance between Jesus' question in Mk 2.9, `Which is easier ... ?' 
(TI  ESTIN EUKOPWTERON etc) and Hezekiah's remark in the LXX of 2 Kings 
20.10, `It is easy ... ' (KAI EIPEN hEZEKIAS KOUFWN, etc). On the 
correspondence between Mk 2.1-12 and 2 Kings. 20.1-11, see T.R. Hobbs, 
/2 Kings/ (Waco: Word Incorporated, 1985), p. 293. Curiously, there 
appears to be no other scholar besides Hobbs who has appreciated, let 
alone noticed, the correspondence between the two texts.

Jeffrey

-- 
Jeffrey B. Gibson, D.Phil. (Oxon)
1500 W. Pratt Blvd.
Chicago, Illinois
e-mail jgibson000 at comcast.net




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