Mk 1:2

Chet Creider creider at csd.uwo.ca
Sat Jul 21 11:07:51 EDT 2001


Mark Cassian DelCogliano wrote:
> Thanks, Carlton, and to the others who have replied. I didn't doubt what
> the various scholars said about the MT but was interested in the source of
> the confidence on the part of that commentator I mentioned regarding the
> Greek text. Carlton's observation is decisive for me: in 1:4, Mk clearly
> places the voice crying in out--John the Baptist--in the desert. I have
> learned an important lesson: that grammatical ambiguity may be resolved by
> looking to the context. The forest is just as important as the trees--even
> the leaves.
> 
> I'll look more closely at the LXX text to see if the ambiguity can be
> resolved by context. In his post Chet Creider has made an inital foray,
> although I don't think one can rely on punctuation, which the ancient mss
> never had.

My wording (...the punctuation is unambiguous...) was unfortunate.  What
I should have written was that the text of Is. 40:6 (PWNH LEGONTOS BOHSON)
was unambiguous as to where the direct speech should begin (viz right
after the participle) in a way that Is. 40:3 was ambiguous (grammatically
speaking).

The interpretation of Mark, however, is another matter and the LXX textual
context provided by Is. 40:6 is of course not present to confuse matters.
For Mark, it appears that there is no confusion as to what EN THi ERHMWi is
modifying.

Chet Creider



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