Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Impossible

The Greek [of Matt 5:20] reads perisseusē … pleion, not just perisseusē. In other words, “surpass … greatly.” Almost all translations ignore the adverb pleion here.— Sermon on the Mount, page 70 n. 12

<idle musing>
Because you probably don't remember the verse (I know I didn't), here it is: "For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (NRSV)

And for those of you who read Greek, here it is in Greek: Λέγω γὰρ ὑμῖν ὅτι ἐὰν μὴ περισσεύσῃ ὑμῶν ἡ δικαιοσύνη πλεῖον τῶν γραμματέων καὶ Φαρισαίων, οὐ μὴ εἰσέλθητε εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν.

That's a tall order, isn't it?
</idle musing>

1 comment:

David Reimer said...

That is interesting (and challenging!). In the listing of translations on Biblehub only the "International Standard Version" (? don't know anything about it) and the Weymouth NT (ditto) include it, both using "greatly". Oddly (to my mind) even the highly literal NASB omits it.