From: Cassian DelCogliano (cassian@holyroodguild.com)
Date: Thu Jul 19 2001 - 11:17:55 EDT
Mk 1:2 PHWNH BOWNTOS EN THi ERHMWi hETOIMASATE THN hODON KURIOU EUQEIAS
POIEITE TAS TRIBOUS AUTOU
This is of course a quotation from Is 40:3. In a commentary I am reading,
the author notes that the Hebrew from the MT clearly conveys that 'in the
desert' is the place in which the way the Lord is to be prepared (i.e. it is
to be construed with the imperative verb), while in the LXX and Mk 'in the
desert' "clearly" refers to the location of 'the one crying out'. Indeed the
English translations I consulted corroborate this estimation: when Is 40:3
is translated from the Hebrew, it is something like: A voice crying: In the
desert prepare the way of the Lord; while Mk is something like: A voice of
one crying in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord.
I have to take this commentator's word regarding the Hebrew of the MT since
I can't read the language. However, it seems to me that the Greek text of
both the LXX and Mk is *ambiguous*. With what the EN THi ERHMWi should be
construed could really be interpreted either way. Is there some grammatical
point or nuance that I am missing here?
I like to check the ancient versions to see what their translations may
offer in terms of interpretation of ambiguous passages. The Latin is as
ambiguous as the Greek: vox clamantis in eremo praepara... (I quote that
from memory so I may be a bit off). However, the Sahidic Coptic
unambiguously construes 'in the desert' with 'the voice of one crying out'
through the use of the particle JE which indicates direct speech. The
translator in this case clearly needed to make an interpretive decision in
order to render the Greek in Coptic.
So while is may be true that the tradition has generally associated EN THi
ERHMWi with PHWNH BOWNTOS, is there any real grammatical basis for doing so?
If one looks at the context, there are two imperative verbs, more or less
exhibiting parallelism. The second colon places EUQEIAS before the verb in
the emphatic position; could not the EN THi ERHMWi in the first colon also
be placed before the imperative in the emphatic position? Is this a
reasonable interpretation of the *grammar* of the Greek?
I was disturbed by the confidence of the commentator that I was reading when
he said what I related above. The actual situation seems less certain to me.
Any comments?
Thanks,
Mark Cassian DelCogliano
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