Koine and Biblical and Medieval Greek • Re: Luke 12:20. Who are “they”?

Thank you for correcting me on his Greek source. I had made an assumption about Receptus from the variant in the apparatus and the German translation. Since ἀπαιτοῦσαν is Luther's source, it becomes very hard for me to say why he didn't translate with zurückfordern then. Maybe Luther was misled by popular Greek in the 16th century. In modern 21st century Greek anyway, απαιτώ is just "demand".

I didn't omit "von dir". It's there in my post.

If you don't think ἀπαιτοῦσιν, "they demand back" or "they demand to be returned" is odd, then maybe you can answer the question of the thread: who can "they" be? Spirits? Angels? God speaking of himself in 3rd person? Other humans? (And why ἀπ-αιτοῦσαν?) The soul was somewhere before the rich man had it? The Gospel did not use not a passive or impersonal construction. For an occasional impersonal, or indefinite subject, as you say, we should normally be able to give specific possibilities. (Compare the "λέγουσιν" that you brought up.)

Statistics: Posted by jeidsath — Mon Oct 09, 2023 2:20 pm

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