Matthew 18:15-20
18:15 “If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one.
18:16 But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
18:17 If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
18:18 Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
18:19 Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.
18:20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
15 ᾿Εὰν δὲ ἁμαρτήσῃ εἰς σὲ ὁ ἀδελφός σου, ὕπαγε καὶ ἔλεγξον αὐτὸν μεταξὺ σοῦ καὶ αὐτοῦ μόνου· ἐάν σου ἀκούσῃ, ἐκέρδησας τὸν ἀδελφόν σου·
16 ἐὰν δὲ μὴ ἀκούσῃ, παράλαβε μετὰ σοῦ ἔτι ἕνα ἢ δύο, ἵνα ἐπὶ στόματος δύο μαρτύρων ἢ τριῶν σταθῇ πᾶν ρῆμα.
17 Ἐὰν δὲ παρακούσῃ αὐτῶν, εἰπὲ τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ· ἐὰν δὲ καὶ τῆς ἐκκλησίας παρακούσῃ, ἔστω σοι ὥσπερ ὁ ἐθνικὸς καὶ ὁ τελώνης.
18 Ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, ὅσα ἐὰν δήσητε ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, ἔσται δεδεμένα ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, καὶ ὅσα ἐὰνλύσητε ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, ἔσται λελυμέναἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ.
19 Πάλιν ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι ἐὰν δύο ὑμῶν συμφωνήσωσιν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς περὶ παντὸς πράγματος οὗ ἐὰν αἰτήσωνται, γενήσεται αὐτοῖς παρὰ τοῦ πατρός μου τοῦ ἐν οὐρανοῖς.
20 Οὗ γάρ εἰσι δύο ἢ τρεῖς συνηγμένοι εἰς τὸ ἐμὸν ὄνομα, ἐκεῖ εἰμι ἐν μέσῳ αὐτῶν.
Comments
Jesus issues a series of injunctions in the form of conditional sentences serving as stipulations.
[15] ᾿Εὰν δὲ ἁμαρτήσῃ εἰς σὲ ὁ ἀδελφός σου, ὕπαγε καὶ ἔλεγξον αὐτὸν: ἁμαρτήσῃ, subj. aor.1 < ἁμαρτάνω; the aor.1 ἡμάρτησα is late. ἁμαρτάνω, first attested in Homer, means ‘miss the target’, abs., esp. in spear throwing; by extension, already in the Odyssey, the vb means ‘to wrong, commit an error’. In Plato (Phaedo 113 e) the noun ἁμαρτία refers to a moral fault (Chantraine, p. 71, s.v. ἁμαρτία). Ιn Aristotle’s Poetics, the noun famously denotes the ‘human fallibility’ (often called ‘tragic flaw’) which brings about a tragic character’s downfall (S. Halliwell).
ἁμαρτάνω in LXX and NT is a good example of ‘semantic shift’ in the evolution of koine vocabulary. In Gen. 20.6, e.g., the vb means ‘I sin’, and the noun means ‘sin’, as in Job 7.21. The vb has taken on ‘a decidedly religious character’ (EDNT, s.v. ἁμαρτία, p. 66). The religious sense is however foreshadowed already in cl. Gk: in (pseudo?-) Aeschylus Prometheus Bound 1039, the cmpd ἐξαμαρτάνω, abs., is used of Prometheus’ colossal ‘mistake’ in seeking to outwit Zeus by giving fire to mortals. Also see immed. below.
εἰς σὲ: relational εἰς, i.e. ‘towards you’, ‘with respect to you’. Cf. “ἐξαμαρτεῖν εἰς θεούς” A.Pr.945, etc.; ἁμάρτημα εἴς τινα, αἰτίαι ἐς ἀλλήλους, Isoc.8.96, Th.1.66 (cited by LSJ). Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, and 0281, the earliest MSS, omit this prepositional phrase. Thus the 1968 edn of the NT (eds Aland, Black, Martini, Metzger, & Wikgren) prints: Ἐὰν δὲ ἁμαρτήσῃ [εἰς σὲ] ὁ ἀδελφός σου.
I print the fuller variant contained in Byzantine MSS and adopted by the Oecumenical Patriarchate. The inclusion or omission of the phrase will have theological implications, as Prof. Brown’s comments show.
ἔλεγξον αὐτόν: < ἐλέγχω, in NT Gk ‘I blame, correct, punish’ (EDNT, p.427). ‘Point out the fault’ in the Engl. tr. is felicitous; coming as it does after the supposition ‘If another member of the church sins against you’, this implies that ἁμαρτία is both an error and a sin. Ἐλέγχειν in this context is more of a correction. It recalls ἐλέγχειν in cl. Gk, which can denote cross-examination or scrutiny (by means of searching questions) intended to provoke self-awareness in the other party. One can ‘cross-examine’ a person or something inanimate, e.g. a situation, hence ἐλέγχω can be construed with an acc. of a person or thing. (Socrates used ἔλεγχος in public and in private in order to puncture pretensions and to show up ignorance.)
Jesus enjoins the offended member to prove to the offender (through argument) his error and sin.
ἐάν σου ἀκούσῃ: ἀκούσῃ, aor. subj. < ἀκούω, ‘hear’; ‘listen to’; hence (by extension) ‘obey’ (cf. LSJ). All three meanings are present in Homer. The meaning in the verse is ‘listen to’ and thus ‘obey’ someone (in the genit.): see EDNT, pp. 52-3, s.v. ἀκοή. Greek, as early as Homer, uses a single vb to denote what in English is denoted by at least two vbs, ‘hear’ and ‘listen to’. ἀκούσῃ points to orality, to talking things through with the offender— perhaps a trivial observation. Vv. 16-17 also imply orality.
[16] ἐὰν δὲ μὴ ἀκούσῃ, παράλαβε μετὰ σοῦ ἔτι ἕνα ἢ δύο, ἵνα ἐπὶ στόματος δύο μαρτύρων ἢ τριῶν σταθῇ πᾶν ρῆμα: Jesus’ instructions have proceeded so far along the lines, ‘If A, then B. If not B, then C.’
στόματος, sg. genit. < στόμα, ‘mouth’.
σταθῇ, 3rd pers. sg., aor. subj., pass. < ἐστάθην < ἵσταμαι, pass. of ἵστημι, ‘I set up’, ‘place’; ἵσταμαι, fig., as here, ‘I am fixed, stable’ (LSJ).
ρῆμα: ‘word’, ‘thing’ (the latter an LXX meaning); here the noun means ‘matter’ (EDNT, pp. 210-11, s.v. ρῆμα), and the phrase ἵνα ἐπὶ στόματος δύο μαρτύρων ἢ τριῶν σταθῇ πᾶν ρῆμα means ‘in order that every (such) matter may be confirmed’. (The Engl. text wrongly renders ρῆμα here as ‘word’.)
[17] Ἐὰν δὲ παρακούσῃ αὐτῶν, εἰπὲ τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ: Jesus continues in this vein, ‘But if not C, then D; if not D, then E’, where E is the dire climax of his stipulations. παρακούσῃ, aor. subj. < παρ-ακούω, the contrary of ἀκούω (see on v. 15 above).
ἐκκλησίᾳ: a classical Athenian word par excellence; it means ‘the assembly duly summoned’ (LSJ), the assembly of citizens comprising the people (demos) of Athens, the supreme institution of democracy in the 5th and 4th centuries BC. The Greek word lies behind the French église, Portuguese igreja, etc. In the NT, the term means ‘the Church’, which like kirk and German Kirche, etc. derives from kuriakon doma, ‘the Lord’s house’. The Greek word brings out the element of the people called forth to meet rather than the building. Cf. v. 20.
[19] συμφωνήσωσιν: 3rd pers. pl., aor. subj. < συμφωνῶ (έω), ‘I agree’, lit. ‘I join my voice with others’ (συμ + φωνή); cf. Engl. sym-phony.
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 