From: Edward Hobbs (EHOBBS@WELLESLEY.EDU)
Date: Sat Dec 19 1998 - 15:57:00 EST
Colleagues,
Away for a day, and several more posts on "LEGONTES" and singing!
Carl's response said it all, but perhaps it needs to be said again in
another way. I think Bill's problem is that he supposes that the
meaning of Greek LEGW is identical to English "say."
It isn't. "Say" is usually a good gloss for LEGW, but many times it isn't.
LEGW basically means, as Carl pointed out, "use these words." Hence,
"say" usually works out well as a translation. But when we are told that
a group "sang a song," then LEGONTES is badly translated by "saying"; we
need something like "using these words."
The Magoi "used these words: Where is he...?" In that case, "said" is a
pretty good English translation. But the example from Revelation won't
accept "saying", since in English "say" excludes singing; in Greek,
LEGW does not.
Now, back to the angels and the shepherds: The words they used were
"Glory to God" etc. Did they use a tune? It doesn't say. I expressed
my opinion that angels SHOULD be singing, so I imagine they did. But of
course that isn't a judgment about Greek, only about angels and their
praises of God. Lots of great composers have hazarded their reputations
on offering us their conjectures as to the melody used by the angels, and
I confess that I waver between Bach and Mozart as to which music the angels
actually used.
The point is, though: In Greek, using LEGW does not exclude singing the
words. Neither does it affirm it. Greek isn't English; LEGW does NOT
equal "say."
Edward Hobbs
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