From: Jonathan Robie (jonathan@texcel.no)
Date: Tue Jun 30 1998 - 08:00:18 EDT
At 12:25 AM 6/30/98 -0500, Jack Kilmon wrote:
>Donald W Price wrote:
>
>> Why does the KJV (in Matt. 6:9) render the phrase "ho en tois ouranois"
>> as "our Father WHICH art in heaven" instead of "WHO art in heaven" as the
>> ASV put it?
>Probably because the "which" and the "who" is strictly optional
>in translational Greek.
Bingo! Here is the complete phrase:
PATER hHMWN, hO EN TOIS OURANOIS
This is an example of second attributive position, which attributes
something to the noun. Consider this simpler example of second attributive
position:
hO ANQRWPWS hO AGAQOS - "the good man"
But what is attributed to God is not a simple adjective like AGAQOS
("good"), but the phrase EN TOIS OURANOIS ("in the heavens"). In this
prayer, we pray to "Our in-the-heavens Father", which might be also be
translated "our heavenly Father". The traditional rendering, "our Father,
who art in heaven", is also a good translation. All of these are English
translations that try to convey the Greek form.
>The Aramaic ABba d'WUSHmaya (The Lukan form being closer
>to the ipsa verba) is simply "Father in Heaven."
Is there actually an extent copy of the Aramaic? As I understand it, it is
just a reconstruction based on later Syriac manuscripts, and there is not
general agreement whether this prayer was originally in Aramaic in the
first place.
Jonathan
___________________________________________________________________________
Jonathan Robie jwrobie@mindspring.com
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