From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Tue Feb 05 2002 - 19:35:52 EST
At 6:19 PM -0500 2/5/02, Hans Radax wrote:
>Dear listmembers,
>
>I was studying Matthew 19:28, right after Peter had asked: "Behold, we have
>forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?" (Matthew
>19:27).
>
>"And Jesus said to them, Verily I say to you, that ye who have followed me
>in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his
>glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones" (Matthew 19:28).
>
>Regeneration is the Greek palingenesia, literally the New Birth.
>
>The problem is how to place "EN TH PALINGENESIA" : "in the regeneration".
>
>Most translators try and make this look like a time clause, where they have
>this refer to the "restitution of all things". NKJV translates then as
>follows:
>
>"In the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory,
>you who have followed Me ..."
>
>The Greek "en" can indeed mean "in"; but also "through", much like in the
>French expression: "en forgeant on devient forgeron (while doing one
>learns)". I suppose, it can have an almost same meaning in Greek.
>
>I believe that from a linguistic point of view, translating "EN TI
>PALINGENESIA" leaves several options. If you see it as a time clause, then
>you get something entirely different from when you interpret "EN" to have a
>function of instrumentality.
>
>The latter translation is what I propose. But I am not confident enough, and
>I thought I ask the opinion of experts.
>
>So, there are those two options:
>
>1. "In the New Birth, those who have followed me," (temporal clause)
>
>and
>
>2. "Those who have followed me in [attaining] the New Birth." (instrumental)
>
>The questions is, whether there is only one valid option, and if so, which
>one, or if both options are valid, whether there is a way to say: This one
>or that one has a higher probability for being the correct translation. May
>the context be helpful? Are there other possibilities for translating this
>verse?
Text:hO DE IHSOUS EIPEN AUTOIS: AMHN LEGW hUMIN hOTI hUMEIS hOI
AKOLOUQHSANTES MOI EN THi PALIGGENESIAi, hOTAN KAQISHi hO hUIOS TOU
ANQRWPOU EPI QRONOU DOXHS AUTOU, KAQHESESQE KAI hUMEIS EPI DWDEKA QRONOUS
KRINONTES TAS DWDEKA FULAS TOU ISRAHl.
The second option -- that EN THi PALIGGENESIAi is somehow instrumental
construing with the participle AKOLOUQHSANTES -- is, I think, not at all
viable. The only way of construing EN THi PALIGGENESIAi as instrumental
would have to be "by means of the regeneration." The 'natural' sequence
here is sufficiently clear: EN THi PALIGGENESIAi construes with KAQHSESQE
KAI hUMEIS ... ; moreover, EN THi PALIGGENESIAi as a temporal locative
construction is followed immediately by a relative adverbial clause:
"At-the-time-of the regeneration/new-creation, WHEN the Son of Man has
taken his seat ..., you who followed me will also sit ..."
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad@ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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