From: Tom Belt (tgbelt@compuserve.com)
Date: Thu Sep 14 2000 - 10:06:44 EDT
<x-html>
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 5.50.4134.100" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV>Friends-</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In 1 Cor. 14:28, Paul directs EAN DE MH hH DIERMHNEUTHS ("If there is no
interpreter, let him keep quite"). Most seem to translate this: "If
there is no interpreter." It is ambiguous, however (so claim a couple of
commentators I've run across), and could be understood to mean "If he [the
tongue-speaker of v. 27] is not an interpreter..." Exactly why (grammatically
speaking) is it ambiguous, and just how ambiguous is it?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Secondly, in the event there is no interpreter (or the tongue-speaker is
not an interpreter), the speaker is to keep silent in the church and speak
hEAUTW KAI TW QEW ("to himself and to God"). In English this appears to be
straightforward enough, but in Greek the two datives are different. Purely a
matter of style? Or are we to understand the first dative heEAUTW as a dative of
advantage and understand Paul to be saying, "...let him speak to God for his own
benefit." I'm having trouble picturing how one would meaningfully "speak to
himself" (i.e. "address himself") in a tongue. The dative of advantage explains
this.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Comments?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I was a member of B-Greek for a while several years ago but withdrew
because I simply had not the time to follow up on the posts. It's good to be
back, and I look forward to learning again.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Blessings,<BR>Tom</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></BODY></HTML>
</x-html>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:36:36 EDT