[B-Greek] Matt 23:9b .... for One is your Heavenly Father

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Sat May 8 07:32:21 EDT 2010


On May 8, 2010, at 5:20 AM, Jay Adkins wrote:
> Can some please explain to me why most English translations translate Matt
> 23:9b as they do.
> 
> Matt 23:9b (GNT) .... EIS GAR ESTIN hUMWN hO PATHR hO OURANIOS
> 
> Matt 23:9b (NASU) .... for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.
> Matt 23:9b (NIV) .... for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.
> Matt 23:9b (NRA) .... for you have one Father-the one in heaven.
> Matt 23:9b (RSV) .... for you have one Father, who is in heaven.
> Matt 23:9b (WEB) .... for one is your Father, he who is in heaven.
> Matt 23:9b (ESV) .... for you have one Father, who is in heaven.
> 
> When I read it, I understood it as;
> Matt 23:9b .... for One is your Heavenly Father.
> 
> Only the WEY is close to my understanding;
> Matt 23:9b (WEY) ....for One alone is your Father--the Heavenly Father.
> 
> Thank you for any assistance.

As happens not infrequently, it's hard to tell whether the question is about what the
Greek text means or about how it should be Englished. Evidently you seem to be
thinking that there's only one way it should be Englished and that in terms of what's
ordinarily called "formal equivalence."

For my part, I think all the versions you've cited are accurate in conveying the
sense of the Greek text, although I think that NASU and WEB are both rather
strange and questionable English phrasing, even if intelligible.

In terms of traditional grammatical analysis, I would understand hUMWN hO
PATHR hO OURANIOS as the subject and hEIS ESTIN as the predicate (hEIS
as the predicate nominative).


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






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