Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Matthew 5:31

"It was said also to those of old time, Whosoever shall from-loose his woman, let him give her a writing of from-stand."

In this section of Matthew 5, Jesus says some words about what we call divorce.  The Etymological New Testament translates the verb and noun ultra-literally in verse 31 above.  The verb is "from-loose" while the noun is "from-stand."  To divorce one's spouse is to loose that person from the marriage bond.  The resulting state is that they now stand from that former relationship.  

In this case, the person being divorced, or from-loosed, is "his woman."  The Greek text has no special word for "wife" (or "husband").  Rather, the context determines the translation...for most Bibles.  The ENT consistently uses the literal "woman" or "man" which allows the reader to see the semantic range of these words in various contexts.  

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