From: David L. Moore (dvdmoore@ix.netcom.com)
Date: Sat Dec 27 1997 - 15:23:50 EST
At 11:32 AM 12/27/97 +0800, Steven Cox wrote:
>
>At 13:23 97/12/23 -0500, David L. Moore wrote:
>> If the emendation to substitute PATERA for ANDRA in v. 16 could be
>>accepted, it would make the series of "fourteens" intelligible. The first
>>fourteen generations would run from Abraham to David, inclusive. The second
>>set of fourteen would include from Solomon to Jechoniah - not counting David
>>twice. And the third set of forteen would, according to the same system of
>>counting, begin with Shealtiel and end with Jesus - counting Mary as a
>>generation between Joseph (her father according to the suggested emendation)
>>and Jesus.
> I was never much good at maths, but who's to say
> that 14+15+14 didn't = 3x14 in those days?
It shouldn't even need to be documented that the basic priciples of
mathematics haven't changed from the first century to now.
> But if we must have a strict 42 names from Abraham
> to Christ, maybe counting both Jesus and Christ might
> be a more Jewish alternative to counting Mary as a
> generation?
Separating Christ from the person of Jesus was a basic tenet of
certain Gnostic heretics and is apparently identified by John as spirit of
antichirst (1Jn. 2:22; 4:2, 3; I. H. Marshall, _The Epistles of John_,
[Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978], pp. 157 f.). So it is unlikely that this
could be seen as a viable solution to the problem of the "fourteens" here.
> Would hWS ENOMIZET0 have any legal significance for
> a Gentile author? (any patrimony suits recorded on TLG?)
The word NOMIZW is fairly easily attested in the sense of false
belief. It is the context that must provide the indications of whether the
belief is well founded, generally held, or false. NOMIZW can cover any of
these. (It can also mean "have in common use" or "be the costom," but
apparently not in Lk. 3:23.) Pseudo-Apollodorus from the 2nd century AD,
for instance, tells of Oedipus' meeting Laius (Oedipus' real father) on the
road between Corinth and Thebes where Oedipus killed his father over whose
chariot had the right of way (shades of road rage). Ps.-Appolodurus says of
Oedipus KAI NOMIZWN EX hWN ELEGETO GEGENNHSQAI, indicating Oedipus' false
belief that he was son of Polybus of Corinth (Ps.-Apollodorus, _Library_,
3:5:7).
If Luke's use of NOMIZW in 3:23 is understood in the light of its
greater context, including Luke's infancy narrative, hWS ENOMIZETO must
obviously mean "as was falsely believed;" NASB says "supposedly" which
probably better gets at the nuance of the Greek. A dyed-in-the-wool
source-critical-schooled commentator might question that interpretation if
he saw the genealogy as a piece apart, but we should recognize that the
final form we have as our text reflects the choices of the writer-redactor
to express meaning as a cohesive whole.
David Moore
David L. Moore
Miami, Florida, USA
Southeastern Spanish District of the A/G Dept. of Education
E-mail: dvdmoore@ix.netcom.com
Home Page: http://members.aol.com/dvdmoore
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:38:41 EDT