Monday with Mounce

Because “you” can be either singular or plural, it does periodically present an interesting dilemma to the translator. Sometimes it doesn't matter if “you” is singular or if it is plural. Sometimes context makes it clear that “you” is singular or plural. But every once in a while, we come across the passage where it is absolutely essential that readers know whether “you” is singular or plural. And since Paul tells the Corinthians that “you” are God's temple, and if anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person, we probably should know a little more about “you.”

In the story of the healing of the ten lepers, there is an interesting interchange of verbs. In English, we tend to use synonyms for stylistic reasons; we don’t like to repeat the same word. Greek, however, isn’t like that. Repetition was not seen poor style. So when there is variation, perhaps it signals something.

In this parable, the master gives money to three of his servants: five talents, two talents, and one talent, “talent” of course being a unit of money. The master leaves on a journey, and when he returns, he asks for an accounting. The servant who received five talents earned five more, the servant who received two talents earned two more, and the servant who received one talent buried it in the ground and earned nothing with it.

In Greek for the Rest of Us, I give the definition of ἐν as “in, by, with.” The preposition is flexible in meaning, and often translation requires significant interpretation. I have often thought it strange that prepositions were introduced into the Greek language to bring clarity to the flexible and various meetings of the cases, and eventually the prepositions suffered the same fate of having a wide variety of meaning that requires interpretation.

I wish that people who do not know Greek would stop misusing it to prove a theological position. When I was writing Greek for the Rest of Us, friends warned me about misuse, so hopefully this last email I received doesn’t refer to those using my book.