Mat 10:29 - Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. NRSV
Are not two sparrows sold (for) an assarion? And one of them will not fall upon the earth without the father of y'all. - Eshinee SV
The problematic word here is aneu (without). It occurs in 2 other places in the NT:
1Pe 3:1-2 - Wives, in the same way, accept the authority of your husbands, so that, even if some of them do not obey the word, they may be won over without a word by their wives' conduct, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. NRSV
Likewise wives, being submitted (to) their own husbands*, that even if any (men) are disobeying the word, through the wives' conduct without a word they will be gained/acquired, having observed the 'pure in fear' conduct of y'all. - Eshinee SV
* The being submitted thing is connected to the earlier subjunctive exhortation, "Let us live to righteousness - 1Pe 2:24," as a condition for the rest of the sentence arising from that righteous living. Like, the being submitted to one's own husband is an example of righteous living, the fruit of which can be seen in time.
1Pe 4:9 - Be hospitable to one another without complaining. - NRSV
[Be] hospitable to one another without grumbling. - Eshinee SV
I would have hoped for a larger sampling of verses from which to draw conclusions of range of meaning for this word. The argument in Bible translation circles is exactly whether it's the implied knowledge of God or the acting will of God that the sparrow's falling is apart from.
The reason I would run with the knowledge theory is because everything else in the context of this passage relates to knowledge. Jesus is talking about no secrets remaining unknown (27), instructing his followers to make secrets known (28) without fear of bodily consequence (29). And, immediately after the sparrow thing, Jesus says that the number of hairs are counted or known (30). The ultimate conclusion of Jesus spiel is not related to predestination but personal accountability (33). This is where the acting will of God element comes in, I think. As in:
Let's look at the chain of "Fear" commands in Mat 10 that leads up to Jesus' command to "Fear not" because of our related worth to sparrows (31).A sparrow doesn't hit the ground without God
* Knowing about it
* Responding to that event/action
16 - I'm sending y'all as sheep among wolves: Become wise as serpents and Become innocent as doves.
17-18 - Be aware (prosecw) that they will persecute y'all.
19-21 - But Be not anxious (merimnaw) about what to say; the HS will give that to you.
22 - You'll be hated but the one enduring to the end will be saved.
23 - When you're persecuted in one city, Flee to another.
26 - Fear not (fobew) the ones persecuting you because all truth will be known.
27 - Speak and Preach the truth I tell you.
28 - Fear not the ones killing your body; Fear the one able to cast your soul into hell.
29 - worthless sparrows: they don’t "fall upon the earth" without God knowing? Making them fall? What? … more on this weird construction in Greek to come.
30 - God has counted your hair (i.e. God knows everything about you).
31 - Fear not [the killers? God?] because you're worth more than many sparrows.
32-33 - THEREFORE, if y'all confess/deny me, I'll confess/deny you before my Father.
Fall upon the earth - in Greek, this is sometimes an idiomatic construction: piptw epi tina (fall upon something). It means ‘to cause to suffer, to cause pain to.’ Now, most of the places in the NT where someone falls upon the earth, it just means it literally, to fall down on the ground (Mar 9:20, 14:35, Act 9:4). These instances are all in active voice; the person does the falling. I'm unclear as to whether that necessarily means that they were not cast down by an external force but cast themselves down. It could just mean a simple going from not being on the ground to being on the ground. In the case of inanimate objects, they are obviously cast down by an external force, being inanimate and all. Seeds are the example in the NT (Mat 13:8). Are we counting sparrows as inanimate objects? I don't know.
Here are 2 options that I might propose for 29, in the context of the passage as a whole:
* No sparrow (a tiny living being) causes suffering on the earth without God knowing about it.
* No sparrow (a tiny object) hits the ground without God knowing about it.
My paraphrase for 30-31 would, either way, run like this:
I mean, hey, God keeps track of your hairs, right? So, don't fear the body-killers; fear the God who keeps tabs on sparrows and, to a much greater extent, keeps tabs on you.
Luk 12:6 - Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God's sight. - NRSV
Are not five sparrows sold for two assarion? And one of them is not having been forgotten in-front-of God. - Eshinee SV
Again, we have a tricky word: lanqanw, forget. It can either just mean to not have in one's memory any more or to forget with the implication that it affects one's actions. The term for forgetting something completely is eklanqanomai. The term used in this passage is epilanqanomai. This does appear to be the subset of forgetting that refers to forgetting with a subsequent failure to act.
The immediate context for this verse is that Jesus is exhorting his followers to live in the fear of God who has the authority to cast them into hell, not fearing humans who kill the body. It's a warning against hypocrisy, saying one thing in secret and expecting to not experience divine repercussions. It is immediately followed by further exhortation against blasphemy and denying Jesus publicly. As in God doesn't forget things and then, subsequently, not take those things into account in his actions.
So, this passage doesn't speak to whether or not our deaths are a part of God's will. This passage as a whole says something more like, "Your faithful death or, alternatively, your faithless life will not slip under God's radar in the final judgment."
1 comment:
fun stuff. Makes me want to take up Greek and hermeneutics again.
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