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Re: Another question on Luke 23:34



At 12:56 PM 9/22/94 CST, Carl Conrad wrote:
>On Thu, 22 Sep 1994 11:30:57 EST you said:
>>Somewhere I once came across another angle on "aphes autois" in this verse:
>> thataphes means "permit" and that the prayer is intended to avert immediate
>> judgmenton the ignorant soldiers, not to secure their forgiveness.  "Permit"
>>is
>> no
>>doubt within the semantic range of aphiEmi and there is perhaps a problem with
>>ignorance as a basis of forgiveness, though not as a basis of averting
>>immediate judgment.  Any comments?
>
>Perhaps in favor of this view is that this text is close enough to the
>modern Greek common construction, "AS +acc. + subj." = "Let (me,him, etc.)
>do such and such"
In this case, however, we have afes + dat.  A quick check of biblical 
passages only shows one other use of afes + dat. that could be construed as 
"permit" - Matthew 5:40 -
kai tw yelonti soi kriqhnai kai ton citona sou labein, afes autw kai to imantion
And to the one who desires to judge you and take your shirt, _allow_ him 
your coat as well.

I'd lean much more towards "forgive" as the meaning when used with a dative.
Daniel J. McDonald                 home: mcdonald@teleport.com 
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