Re: Matthew 8:5-12
Jonathan Robie (jwrobie@mindspring.com)
Sat, 09 Aug 1997 08:53:42 -0400
At 07:24 AM 8/9/97 -0400, Carl W. Conrad wrote:
>Paul Dixon has noted that Mt uses this coda (EKEI ESTAI ... TWN ODONTWN) in
>many an eschatological passage. It should be noted that it appears once in
>Lk (13:28) in the same context. I would assume that this is a piece of the
>common tradition shared by Mt and Lk and generally referred to as "Q." In
>any case, this must be an "anaphoric" use of the particular article to
>refer to something well-known to the audience (Smyth #1120a, BDF #252).
>This is actually a very ancient usage of the article in its original
>function as a demonstrative: "And that's where there'll be that
>lamentatation and that gnashing of teeth (that you've heard about so many
>times)"
But from where would they have known of the reference? As far as I know, it
isn't in the Old Testament. Even if it were in "Q", Matthew would be
reasonably incompetent if he portrays Jesus as making references to things
well known because the readers are familiar with "Q".
Jonathan
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