Luke 12:49-51

Greek Koine and Biblical and Medieval Greek
1

Πῦρ ἦλθον βαλεῖν ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν, καὶ τί θέλω εἰ ἤδη ἀνήφθη. βάπτισμα δὲ ἔχω βαπτισθῆναι, καὶ πῶς συνέχομαι ἕως ὅτου τελεσθῇ. δοκεῖτε ὅτι εἰρήνην παρεγενόμην δοῦναι ἐν τῇ γῇ; οὐχί, λέγω ὑμῖν, ἀλλ’ ἢ διαμερισμόν.

I have at least three problems with this, probably more:

  1. ἀνήφθη – aorist passive, to kindle. Very similar to our expression “the fire has caught,” I suppose. Does it apply to the earth here, or to the πῦρ? If the fire, it would appear simply to be an expression of urgency, but if the earth, then it becomes much more mysterious.

  2. τί θέλω. I feel like this could be anything from “what do I want?” to “what will I do?” to “what do I care?”

  3. But maybe πῶς συνέχομαι refers back to τί θέλω and constrains its interpretation? After the baptism he is to undergo, he will no longer be held back from doing ὅ τι θέλει.

2

  1. It could be “the fire had caught”, but it is more natural, I think, to take it with the Earth, since it is closer to the verb and it is clear that throwing fire on it will make it burn. How do you think this would be mysterious?

  2. I think τί is used adverbially here, so it is more “How I wish…”. Notice that there is no question mark. And the εἰ is a bit strange too, for some verbs of strong feeling εἰ is used as ὅτι.

  3. If you find my suggestions in 1) and 2) reasonable, you might see “πῶς συνέχομαι” differently.

3

You’re right that it’s not mysterious if you take it to mean “How I wish that the earth had already caught fire.” In fact here’s the LSJ:

τί as exclamatory Adv., how . . ! τί ὡραιώθησαν σιαγόνες σου ὡς τρυγόνες LXXCa.1.10, cf. 4.10; τί θέλω how I wish! Ev.Luc.12.49; τί στενή v.l. in Ev.Matt.7.14.

That reading makes sense. However, though I quoted from W&H above, I was actually reading the verse in the SBLGNT version, and there the editor has decided to print it as a question rather than a statement, presumably as a conscious contradiction to the above.

4

I read ανηφθη as referring to the πυρ, in accordance with normal usage. But I could be wrong.

τί effectively exclamatory is matched by πῶς used similarly. Both are properly interrogative, but this is colloquial Greek.