Re: Walking on the sea in Matt 14:25,26

From: Maurice A. O'Sullivan (mauros@iol.ie)
Date: Sat Jun 12 1999 - 17:46:30 EDT


At 20:31 11/06/99 -0400, you wrote:
>Matt 14:25: ... HLQEN PROS AUTOUS PERIPATWN EPI *THN QALASSAN*
>THN QALASSAN Aleph B P W Delta Theta 084 01016 fam1 fam13 700 1241] THS
>QALASSHS C D L Maj
>
>Matt 14:26: ... IDONTES AUTON EPI *THS QALASSHS* PERIPATOUNTA
>THS QALASSHS Aleph B C D fam1 33. 892. 1010. 1241] THN QALASSAN L W 0106
>Maj
>
>I am puzzled by the use of the accusative THN QALASSAN in Matt 14:25 and of
>the genitive THS QALASSHS in Matt 14:26. It seems to me that both verses
>describes Jesus' walking (movement). Is there any syntactical explanation.

There is an explanation, somewhat tentatively offered, in @

Zerwick, Maximilian,& Grosvenor, Mary. A Grammatical Analysis of the Greek
New Testament. Rome, 1988.

Commenting on v. 26, it notes the genitive here as against the accusative
in v. 25 and " perhaps here the idea of seeing where _ on_ prevails over
that of movement _over_.

Seems a sensible insight to me.

BTW, there is a cross-reference to par. 123 of:
Zerwick, Maximilian S.J. Biblical Greek: Illustrated by Examples. English
edn. Adapted from the fourth Latin edn. By Joseph Smith S.J. Rome, 1963.

I have hunted hight up and low down on my shelves for my copy, and right
now cannot lay my hands on it. So forgive me not quoting the par. for you <g>

>I am even more puzzled by the variant readings. If you notice several
>manuscripts that have the accusative in Matt 14:25 have the genitive in
>14:26 and and vice versa. One would expect an harmonization of the two
>mentions of Jesus' walking on the sea, i.e., two accusatives or two genitive.
>
>Can someone throw any light on this matter?
>

Bear in mind that the Markan parallel has the geneitive in both verses --
for comments on the little literary flourishes shown by Mattew in parallel
passage, see:

Gundry, Robert H. Matthew: A Commentary on His Literary and Theological
Art. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983.

Given that Mark has the genitive, and that there was a scribal
realization/memory that Matthew had introduced the variation of an
accusative I am not surprised that in some scriptoria the variation
occurred the wrong way round.

Hope this helps.

Maurice

Maurice A. O'Sullivan [ Bray, Ireland ]
mauros@iol.ie

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