Quote:
Originally Posted by Unmasked
(34)"I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed: the one will be taken and the other will be left. (35) There will be two women grinding together: the one will be taken and the other left. (36) Two men will be in the field: the one will be taken and the other left."
This is a common text used to support the idea of the rapture of Christ's church. A lesser discussed topic is the text of verse 34 when the masculine is used to refer to two in bed. Most versions eliminate the gender on this one. There are those that believe that those versions are censoring this because of homosexual connotations. Knowing a bit about linguistics, I know that masculine words refer to male and mixed gender groups in most languages, and would have in Greek. So the question arises as to the gender of the two in bed, and whether this bed refers to a marriage bed. I'm not sure of the customs of the time and how common it was for men to share a bed, but I find it interesting that the text specifies that they were in one bed. In my limited experience and understanding I view that as Christ possibly drawing attention to the fact that these two were in bed together, which leads me to believe that the masculine was intended to mean two men, and the emphasis was to insinuate a romantic relationship between the two.
What are your thoughts on this passage?
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Here is the Greek:
λέγω ὑμῖν ταύτῃ τῇ νυκτὶ ἔσονται
δύο ἐπὶ κλίνης μιᾶς ὁ εἷς παραλημφθήσεται καὶ
ὁ ἕτερος ἀφεθήσεται
The words in question:
κλίνης - bed
δύο - two (adjective, nominative, plural, masculine). What is curious is that the the nominative plural feminine is also spelled δύο! Is there something in the immediate Greek context that would cause us to assume it is two men in the bed?
The context does say that the other (man) was left: ὁ ἕτερος ἀφεθήσεται
ὁ - the (article, nominative, singular, masculine)
ἕτερος - other
ἀφεθήσεται - was left
So does the reference to the one man that was left behind automatically mean that δύο refers to two men? It makes sense to me unless you feel that that the author used δύο to be ambiguous about gender. I think the context would lead me to translate it as two men.
And this does bring up an excellent side discussion. Can homophobia influence translation. Absolutely.