I am not sure I fully understand the implications of rejecting a translation
based upon the premise that a particular construction must be found in other
texts to be valid grammar. This whole business of statistics in linquistics
puzzles me, and if anyone has and references on this subject I would be very
interested. From what little background I do have in statistics as applied to
another science, I know that the sample size available for study significantly
affects the accuracy of the premise. Because of this I opened up my search
for similar constructions in meaning.
Please forgive me if I have misunderstood the syntax, because I freely admit to
being a rank novice in Greek. Therefore I looked for a construction in Greek
which fit the criterion of 'I [Tell | say ] today' where today is not refering
to the physical 24 hour time frame, but in the context of emphasizing that 'you
better believe what I am about to say' , because the alternative of 'This is the
day I am telling you this' would appear to add no real information.
Therefore I submit the following construction to this group for criticism.
De 30:18 ANAGGELLW SOI SHMERON OTI APWLEIA APOLEISQE KAI OU MH POLUHMEROI GENHSQE
EPI THJ GHJ HJ KURIOJ O QEOJ SOU DIDWSIN SOI EIJ HN UMEIJ DIABAINETE TON IORDANHN
EKEI KLHRONOMHSAI AUTHN (lxx)
I realize that the hOTI clause removes all doubt as to how to interpret SHMERON,
but I do not know enough Greek (yet) to determine if this disqualifies my
example as a parallel construction to Luke 23:43.
Sincerely,
-lars