From: Stephen C. Carlson (scarlson@mindspring.com)
Date: Mon Jan 29 2001 - 14:00:44 EST
At 10:10 AM 1/29/01 -0600, Steven Craig Miller wrote:
>Chiasmus is a familiar figure of speech in Greek speech. But none of the
>grammars treat it as a type of Greek syntax. To assume that Mt 7:6 is a
>Chiasmus is to override normal Greek syntax and to make the text say what I
>serious doubt it is legitimate to have it say. There is no real Chiasmus at
>Mt 7:6. In my opinion, the interpretation of Mt 7:6 as a Chiasmus is based
>more on the creative imagination of scholars than on sober analysis of
>Greek syntax.
Putting your criticisms in the weakness of Davies & Allison's
affirmative case for a chiasmus in Matt 7:6 aside (and I would
tend to agree with those criticisms), I still fail to understand
why their position that Matt 7:6 is a chiasmus would "override
normal Greek syntax" as you put it. If you are correct that
"normal Greek syntax" is being overridden, then that would be
a powerful negative case against the chiasmus position, not just
a weak affirmative case, as the vast bulk of your message addressed.
So, what aspect of "normal Greek syntax" is being overridden in
Matt 7:6?
I fail to see any syntactical difficulties in understanding Matt
7:6 as a chiasmus. Syntax permits either the dogs or pigs or both
(or possibly even some other subject in mind) to be the antecedent
of either of the verbs. The particular assignment of these
antecedents to the verbs' subjects (whether in parallel, inverted
parellel, etc.) is a matter of style, not syntax. Thus, there
are no *syntactical* grounds in objecting to Matt 7:6 as a chiasmus.
That is my position, which I may change if someone could point
out the syntactic irregularity.
Stephen Carlson
--
Stephen C. Carlson mailto:scarlson@mindspring.com
Synoptic Problem Home Page http://www.mindspring.com/~scarlson/synopt/
"Poetry speaks of aspirations, and songs chant the words." Shujing 2.35
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