Notes and Queries, Vol. IV, Number 109, November 29, 1851: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.Various
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Notes and Queries, Vol. IV, Number 109, November 29, 1851: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.
Various
Questions and answers -- Periodicals
CEPHAS'S version of the passage is right, and our English version is
wrong; but the fault lies in the ignorance of our translators, an
ignorance which they shared with all the scholars of their day, and many
not bad scholars of our own, of the effect produced on the force of the
article by the relation in which it stands to the other words in the
clause, in point of order. ὁ τίμιος γάμος is "the honourable
marriage;" ὁ τίμιος γάμος ἐστί is "the honourable marriage
is;" ὁ γάμος τίμιος is untranslateable, unless you supply
ἐστί, and then it means "the marriage" (or, marriage in
general, in the abstract) "is honourable." But ἔστω might be
supplied, as it is in Heb. xiii. 4., when it will mean, "let marriage be
honourable:" and τίμιος ὁ γάμος has just the same meaning,
with perhaps this difference, that the emphasis falls more distinctly on
τίμιος. The circumstance that the mere assertion that marriage
is honourable in all (men or things), true as it is in itself, ill
accords with the tenor of the passage of which it forms a part, which is
hortatory, not assertive, is a good reason why CEPHAS'S version should
be preferred. But when we find afterwards the words καὶ ἡ κοίτη
ἀμίαντος, it is impossible to deny this hortatory force to the
sentence; for those words cannot mean "the undefiled bed:" and to
translate them "the (or their) bed is undefiled"--which is the only
version which they will here bear, but one--would give but a feeble
sense. That sole remaining sense is, "the bed (let it) be undefiled;"
subaudite ἔστω in the verse is, "Let marriage be honourable in
all" (men or things), "and the bed be undefiled; but (or for)
whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." Had our translators known
that ἡ κοίτη ἀμίαντος could not mean "the bed undefiled," they
would at once have been driven to see that the verse is a commandment:
and the commandment that marriage should be held honourable in all men
(or in all respects), would have served the purpose of their doctrines
quite as well as the affirmative form which they have given to their
present version. I say, it would have served their purpose; but I say
more: they heeded not what did or would serve their purpose. They looked
only for the truth and disregarded all else in their pursuit of it. With
regard to the controversy about ἐν πᾶσι, it is immaterial which
version be adopted. MR. WALTER is right in the rule which he enunciates,
if he means that in those cases of adjectives in which the masculine and
neuter forms are the same, "man" or "men," not "thing" or "things," must
be understood: but it is not always observed, even in classical writers,
either in Latin or in Greek. There is no reason why it should be broken
here; and I do not believe it is broken. It must have been only by a
slip of CEPHAS'S pen that he called πᾶσι a feminine adjective.
It undoubtedly refers to both sexes. I wish E. A. D. had given the Greek
of the passages from Chrysostom and Augustine, of which he has
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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