John, thank you very much ! I feel stupid since I wrote my own search
program for the LXX using the ETEXT available on the net. The particular
word I searched for was ENTOS, but in my text the final sigma is J, so
I should have searched for ENTOJ.
Now I find 1Mac(1), Ps(2), Ca(1), Sir(1), Isa(1) and Dath(1) for a total of
seven references.
Also, thanks for the other responses. I can see that there are indeed
scholars who understand it the way you do, which was part of the reason
I posted my question.
And thanks to Jonathan for pointing out that the occurence in Matthew
was genitive. What I was thinking but expressed incorrectly was that
the object of ENTOS was only found with genitive plural one time. I still
would like to see some examples of ENTOS + Genitive Plural where the
context shows that what is 'inside' of those things specified by the
Genitive Plural is inside each individual instead of in the midst or
surrounded by the individuals, which is the sense of those examples I
found on Perseus. Perhaps I am overlooking some, as I appear to have
not done my research thoroughly in the first place.
It looks to me that ENTOS can be translated either way and that the
deciding factor must be context. I of course have my own preference
which is influenced by how I interpret that BASILEIA is used, but
a discussion of that may not be profitable on B-GREEK. I'll be glad
to pursue the subject off-line if anyone is interested.
Sincerely,
Larry Kruper