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Divorce and Remarriage/Mat. 5:32
gcollier@du.edu (GARY D. COLLIER) wrote in answer to Jim Hill's question:
>The form moixeuqe/nai ("forces her into adultery,") is an aorist
>passive infinitive (only at Matt 5:32 in the NT). It is
>generally translated as a verb which indicates the woman's
>action, "makes her commit adultery" (KJV, NASV, TEV, and others),
>or as a verb which indicates her subsequent status, "makes her an
>adulteress" (RSV, NRSV, ASV, and ERV)...., [etc.]
There is a possibility for the interpretation of POIEI AUTHN
MOICEUQHNAI that I have not seen mentioned in the literature available to
me. It depends on assuming that Jesus' teaching (and possibly the original
written form of this pericope) was in A
ramaic. Since Jesus' having taught in Aramaic is just about universally
accepted, it seems safe to assume Aramaic grammatical forms at some point
behind the Greek text here.
If POIEI AUTHN MOICEUQHNAI is an example of the Semitic hiphil (i.e.
causative-active) form of the verb in question, the meaning of the phrase
should be, "causes her to commit adultery." The active part of the
causative-active verb form would be exp
ressed in the active sense of the Greek POIEI; and MOICEUQHNAI would be in
the passive case to indicate that the woman, in such an instance, would be
forced into an adulterous relationship (assuming she would remarry) of
which she would not be the active
cause. Understanding the clause in this way focuses on the person who has
caused the divorce as the one really guilty as the cause of the adultery.
David Moore