Re: Matt 11:25 etc...

From: Carlton Winbery (winberyc@speedgate.net)
Date: Wed Oct 27 1999 - 19:12:31 EDT


Brian Swedburg wrote;

> Stephen and Dr. Carlton, thank you for your thoughtful responses!
>Dr. Carlton, you wrote...
>This short paragraph is among several sayings pericope that have been
>removed from their context and cannot now be related very well to what is
>around them. This is also the case of the opening statement, EN EKEINWi
>TWi KAIRWi APOKRIQEIS hO IHSOUS EIPEN: EXOMOLOGOUMAI SOI, PATER, . . . As
>the beginning of this paragraph this seems very strange. Did God ask him a
>question?
>BAGD (p93) says that APOKRIQEIS in this verse is a Hebraic continuation
>of discourse i.e... "continuing, Jesus said".

Brian, I have found no evidence of such a use. APOKRINW is rare in
classical Greek and basically means "to separate," or "to distinguish." In
the passive form it can mean "to depart," "to be distinguished," or "to be
separated." When accompanied by verbs of saying (EIPEN), it indicates an
answer. I have seen no instance of it being used to mean, "to continue a
conversation."

>Being young in my Greek studies, I'm not familiar with APOKRIQEIS being
>used this way often. Is it in your experience? Is this a viable
>alternative?
>I realize that if your verdict is in that this is a wisdom saying, or
>remembered saying of Jesus, drawn from a theorized document such a Q, such
>a connection would appear fictitious. Yet, I am open to the possibility
>that our author is telling it like it was, and am therefore interested in
>this connection of pericopes.

I really did not say anything about Q or the origin of this saying, but
that it is part of a loose collection of sayings of which Matthew is
notorious for bring such sayings together in the same context (cf. the
Sermon on the Mt. with Luke). Q material to me simply identifies material
in Matt. & Luke that is not in Mark. Whether they got this material from
one source or many sources is not something that can be proven. At least 72
verses of this material in Matthew is from documentary sources (instead of
oral), but that is about as far as we can go IMO.

Dr. Carlton L. Winbery
Foggleman Professor of Religion
Louisiana College
winbery@speedgate.net
winbery@andria.lacollege.edu
Ph. 1 318 448 6103 hm
Ph. 1 318 487 7241 off

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