exclamation or question?

[mikeatnip]

In Matt. 21:20 we see:
Καὶ ἰδόντες οἱ μαθηταὶ ἐθαύμασαν, λέγοντες, Πῶς παραχρῆμα ἐξηράνθη ἡ συκῆ; (Byz)
The KJV and a few others translate the last phrase as an exclamatory remark. Most others as a question. It seems that I read somewhere in a grammar that the semi-colon (added later, of course) can sometimes be read as an exclamation, but I cannot find that information in any grammar at the moment and am wondering if I remember correctly. So my question is, can the ";" in the text be taken as a exclamation? The context here could be either way, in my opinion ... and I am assuming that context trumps editorial insertions of the punctuation marks.

[S Walch]

The ; as far as I'm aware, always indicates a question mark.

[Jonathan Robie]

The ; as far as I'm aware, always indicates a question mark.

This is probably a question about KJV 1769 translation choices. It's clearly a question mark in most critical editions - do any have this as an exclamation mark? If so, which ones?

KJV 1611 has this as a question:

And when the Disciples saw it, they marueiled, saying, How soone is the figge tree withered away?

BrillDAG does cite Matthew 21:20 as one example where πῶς can be used in an exclamation:

exclam. how …!, how much …! with adj. and adv. NT Matt. 21:20; πῶς δυσκόλως with what difficulty NT Mark 10:23; ὦ πῶς PHILEM. 2.1 ‖ with verbs NT Luke 12:50, al.; ἴδε πῶς ἐφίλει αὐτόν see how he loved him! NT John 11:36 Ion. κῶς HDT. HP. etc.

Franco Montanari, ed. Madeleine Goh and Chad Schroeder, The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2015).

BDAG also lists this usage, but doesn't list Matthew 21:20 as an example of it:

② in exclamations (cp. 1aβ; Schwyzer II 626) how … ! (X., An. 6, 5, 19 al.; Epict. 1, 16, 13; 4, 1, 115; 116, Ench. 24, 3 πῶς ἄνισοί ἐστε καὶ ἀγνώμονες; M. Ant. 6, 27.—B-D-F §436; Rob. 302; OLagercrantz, Eranos 18, 1918, 26ff; KRupprecht, Philol. 80, 1924, 207) πῶς δύσκολόν ἐστιν Mk 10:24; cp. vs. 23; Lk 18:24. πῶς συνέχομαι 12:50. πῶς ἐφίλει αὐτόν J 11:36.—Hm 11:20; 12, 4, 2.—JBauer, Pōs in der gr. Bibel, NovT 2, ’57, 81–91. DELG s.v. πο-. M-M. EDNT.

William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 901.

Anyone want to weigh in on the arguments for treating Matthew 21:20 as an exclamation?

[Stephen Carlson]

Since questions can be used as exclamations, maybe we're dealing with a false dichotomy. Why not both?

[Tony Pope]

Since questions can be used as exclamations, maybe we're dealing with a false dichotomy. Why not both?

That may be reasonable, but would it not be necessary to specify what kind of a question? To my mind the sentence is not merely a question for information, whereas some translations in English, German and French I have seen are most naturally read that way.

As far as I can see, θαυμάζειν would more likely precede an exclamation than a question, and ἀποκρίνεσθαι (verse 21) does not necessarily require that the preceding turn in the conversation was a question for information (cf. the Mark parallel 11.21-22 ῥαββί, ἴδε ἡ συκῆ ἣν κατηράσω ἐξήρανται. [22] καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς ὁ Ἰησοῦς λέγει αὐτοῖς· ἔχετε πίστιν θεοῦ).

[Jonathan Robie]

Since questions can be used as exclamations, maybe we're dealing with a false dichotomy. Why not both?

How cool is that?

[mikeatnip]

Since questions can be used as exclamations, maybe we're dealing with a false dichotomy. Why not both?

How cool is that?

Yes, how cool is that‽

[Jonathan Robie]

Yes, how cool is that‽

https://apps.timwhitlock.info/unicode/i ... =%E2%80%BD

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