From: Nichael Cramer (nichael@sover.net)
Date: Wed Dec 06 2000 - 11:22:19 EST
Rafael Rodriguez wrote:
>This is my first post, so I humbly ask for patience.
>
>In Hebrews 11.11, UBS 4 Rev. reads: PISTEI KAI AUTH SARRA STEIRA DUNAMIN EIS
>KATABOLHN SPERMATOS ELABEN KAI PARA KAIRON hHLIKIAS, EPEI PISTON hHGHSATO
>TON EPAGGEILAMENON. The first phrase (PISTEI KAI AUTH SARRA STEIRA DUNAMIN)
>is listed as a 'C' reading, but the variants do not seem to affect the
>identification of the subject of this sentence.
>
>My question is: does anyone know why both the NIV (1984) and the NRSV (1989)
>make Abraham the subject? The NIV blatantly supplies the so-far missing
>Abraham, while NRSV understands the subject of ELABEN simply as "he." Is
>there any reason not to understand Sara as the one described as faithful
>(Genesis accounts notwithstanding ;o} )? Thanks for the feedback . . .
The companion to the UBS4, "A Textual Commentary on the Greek NT"
reads, for this verse:
"The difficulties with this verse are well known ...
Appreciating the lexical difficulty, but unwilling to emend
the text, a majority of the Commmittee understood the words KAI
AUTH SARRA STEIRA to be a Hebraic circumstantial cluse, thus
allowing ABRAAM (ver 8.) to serve as subject of ELABEN"
In short, I think the committee --as with many others-- is bending
over backwards to ensure that it is Abraham (i.e. not Sarah) who
has the "seminal emission" in the sentence.
OTOH, there are those who have argued that --in spite of our
modern understand-- the author of Hebrews meant precisely that
it was Sarah who had the seminal emission, such a model of
conception being quite in tune with contemporary physiology.
See, for example:
Pieter Willem Van Der Horst's "Did Sarah Have
A Seminal Emission?" Bible Review (Feb 1992).
Nichael
--
Nichael Cramer
nichael@sover.net
http://www.sover.net/~nichael/
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