POLLOI could refer not only to sources, but also to books not used as
sources by Luke. Under my hypothesis, Luke could have known of four
documents, two notebooks used as sources, and two gospels not used as
sources. Also under my hypothesis, **the eyewitnesses ** to which Luke
also refers in Lk 1:1 could indicate that Luke knew of the written
Aramaic/Hebrew Logia which Papias indicates were written by an
eyewitness named Matthew. Furthermore, Luke could, on my hypothesis,
have known a Proto-Thomas which was, like the Gospel of Thomas itself, a
set of disjointed pericopes. I suppose my count is therefore 2 + 2 + 1 +
1 which comes to 6. If, as Mark Goodacre says, in Acts 24.10 Felix is
said by Luke to have been judge EK POLLWN ETWN when most chronologies
would say that Felix had had at most six years at this stage, then I
suppose my count of six here would qualify for Luke's use of POLLOI in
Lk 1:1 also. I certainly do not see it as a difficulty for my
hypothesis, though I suppose it could be for other theories, especially
those that explicitly state that material special to Matthew and Luke
was not taken from documentary sources.
My question, though, is still really about POLLOI. In Mk 10:45, Jesus
refers to the Son of man giving his life LUTRON ANTI POLLWN. Generally
commentators take POLLWN here to mean all members of the human race.
There is no ** maximum ** number to which POLLOI refers, I would have
thought. What I wonder is whether there is some sort of ** minimum **
number which would apply to POLLOI? There are frequent instances of the
use of numbers in the NT, and also in the LXX. What I wonder is whether
in the Greek these in some way ** quantify ** the meaning of POLLOI at
its lowest numerical value. If the minimum is not 2, could it be 3, or
4, or 5, ....? Is it possible to draw a line? Or is POLLOI as vague, or
even vaguer, in this respect than our use of the word ** many ** in
English? I am wary of presuming that because ** many ** is vague in
English its apparent equivalent, POLLOI, must necessarily have been as
vague in Greek.
Best wishes,
BRIAN E. WILSON