Re: Hebrews 2:11 and hO

From: Ben Crick (ben.crick@argonet.co.uk)
Date: Thu Sep 11 1997 - 13:32:54 EDT


On Wed 10 Sep 97 (23:36:38), eweiss@gte.net wrote:
> However, the Greek text editors seem to favor the neuter RELATIVE
> PRONOUN. So what am I missing or misunderstanding about how the neuter
> relative pronoun functions here - if indeed it is the relative pronoun?

 Eric:

 It seems to me that what we have here is the Westcott and Hort textual-
 critical principle of always preferring the reading that gives the more
 "difficult" sense. They argued that the more difficult text will be more
 likely to have been the original; because it is more likely to have been
 edited "easier to comprehend" by a later redactor, than the other way round.

 IMHO this results in a perverse preferring of the "worse" text; but it is a
 matter of opinion. Was it Socrates who lamented that Defence Advocates always
 argued perversely that the worse cause was the better one?

 Westcott in his /The Epistle to the Hebrews/, 3rd ed., 1903, has "hO/" with
 rough breathing and acute accent; but he passes over it without textual
 comment. He offers by way of exegesis "hO/ TE GAR hAGIAZWN] The discipline
 through which Christ reached perfection is that through which he brings his
 people. That which is appointed for them He also accepts (John xvii.19), for
 both He and they are of One Father. Holiness is the characteristic which
 reveals the divine birth..." (page 50).

 FWIIW, my printed Bible Society GNT has "hO/" with accent; but my hard-disc-
 resident Nestle-Aland 27th edition electronic text has "hO" (no accent).

 Since the Codex Sinaiticus has all-uncial text with no breathings, accents,
 punctuation, nor even spacing between words, I suppose anything that makes
 sense, goes. My Greek hairdresser (Cypriot) informs me that Greek national
 newspapers now offically have letters-only text without any breathings,
 accents, iota subscripts, or whatever. So but for the gaps between words, the
 wheel has now turned full circle!

-- 
 Revd Ben Crick, BA Bristol, 1963 (hons in Theology)
 <ben.crick@argonet.co.uk>
 232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK)
 


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