[B-Greek] APOKRITHEIS in Matthew 28:5
Farrell Till
jftill at mailaka.net
Sat Mar 17 12:14:08 EST 2007
A Bible group that I participate in has been discussing differences in
Matthew's and John's resurrection narratives. A key concern during the
discussions has been why John said that Mary Magdalene went to the tomb,
found it empty, and then ran to tell Peter and "the other disciple" that
the body had been stolen, whereas Matthew said that Mary M was one of the
women who went to the tomb, saw an angel descend, roll away the stone, and
tell the women that Jesus had risen, after which the women, who would have
included Mary M, left the tomb, encountered Jesus, and even touched and
worshiped him.
The two accounts seem incompatible, but a solution has emerged during the
discussions. This solution hinges on some lexicographical claims that the
aorist tense of APOKRINOMAI conveys the idea of "answering
later." Moulton's, Perschbacher's, and Wigram's Analytical Greek Lexicons
have been cited to support this solution. All of them give the same
explication of this verb.
>APOKRINOMAI (§ 27. rem. 3) aor. 1, APOKRINAMHN and, later, also (pass.
>form) APEKRIQHN (i, fut. (pass. form) APOKRIQHSOMAI (APOKRINW to separate,
>from APO & KRINW to answer, Mat. 3.15, et al.; in N. T. to respond to
>certain present circumstances, to avow, Mat. 11.25 et al.
Matthew 28:5 contains the aorist 1 participle APOKRIQEIS, so on that basis
some have theorized that this verse should have been translated "And later
answering, the angel said...." This translation of the verse would allow
for a gap or delay between the angel's descent and his speaking to the
women, so possibly Mary Magdalene could have left the tomb site before the
angel announced the resurrection and gone to find Peter and John. This,
then, would possibly explain why she thought that the body had been stolen
even though Matthew's account says that the angel told the women that Jesus
had risen and that they then encountered Jesus personally.
A major problem, however, is that we can find no Bible versions in either
English or French that translated APOKRITHEIS this way in Matthew 28:5 or
anywhere else in the New Testament. Is there any basis for thinking that
APOKRITHEIS in this verse did communicate the idea of a significant time
delay? Are there any places in the NT where APOKRITHEIS was translated
"later answered" or its equivalent.
If not, why do you suppose that Wigram, Moulton, and Perschbacher have said
that APOKRITHEIS in the aorist tense could mean "and, later," or "also."
Another problem that some of us have wondered about is how conjunctive
("and" or "also") or adverbial ("later") terms could properly define a
verbal word. None of these terms convey concepts of verbal action.
Some of us have elementary knowledge of Koine Greek but nothing that could
be considered scholarly. Any input that the group could give us would be
be
J. F. Till (ret.)
jftill at mailaka.net
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