Matthew 28:20

One of the readings for Trinity Sunday earlier this month was Matthew 28:16-20.  In following along in my French New Testament, I noticed something interesting about the last verse.  In English, it's "'teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.'"  The French is "et enseignez-leur à observer tout ce que je vous ai prescrit.  Et voici, je suis avec vous tous les jours, jusqu'à la fin du monde."  "Tous les jours" stuck out to me.  At first, I thought this was simply a characteristically French expression, but I found the same phrase ("all of the days") when I lookt at the German ("und lehret sie halten alles, was ich euch befohlen habe.  Und siehe, ich bin bei euch alle Tage bis an der Welt Ende.") and the Greek ("διδάσκοντες αὐτοὺς τηρεῖν πάντα ὅσα ἐνετειλάμην ὑμῖν· καὶ ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ μεθ᾽ ὑμῶν εἰμι πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας ἕως τῆς συντελείας τοῦ αἰῶνος.").

I greatly prefer "all of the days" or "every day" over "always."  "Always" is broad and rather general where "all of the days"/"every day" is more specific and focused, which gives a greater sense of assurance.

Psalm 146:7-10

Back in January (while watching Worship Anew from 15 December), I noticed some anaphora at the end of Psalm 146, starting halfway through verse 7:

The LORD sets the prisoners free; 8 the LORD opens the eyes of the blind.  The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous.  9 The LORD watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.  10 The LORD will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations.  Praise the LORD!

I didn't write about it then, probably because I didn't have anything else to say about it.

Psalm 146 was also the Psalm in the Worship Anew program for 10 May, and while watching this last month (only one week late this time!), I realize a function of this anaphora.  "The LORD" is repeated, but His actions are different in every clause, which illustrates the variety of His capabilities.  In a word, His omnipotence.

John 3:12

Back in May 2018, one of the readings in the lectionary was from John 3, and I noticed a chiasm in verse 12.  Jesus says to Nicodemus, "'If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?'"

It breaks down like this:

If I have told you earthly things

And you do not believe, 

How can you believe

If I tell you heavenly things?

In my note to myself, I said that I didn't know if this feature was present in the Greek or whether it has any significance.

The Daily Dose of Greek went over this verse last month, and I learned that this chiasm isn't present in the Greek.  It's a feature unique to the English translation.

Mark 4:41

The Daily Dose of Greek "re-runs" of Mark on YouTube stopt after chapter 2, but I've been continuing on my own and digging through the archives.  Last month, I finished chapter 4, and I noticed a small feature in the last verse:

"And they [the disciples] were filled with great fear and said to one another, 'Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?'"

Both that translation (ESV) and Dr. Plummer render "καὶ ὁ ἄνεμος καὶ ἡ θάλασσα" as "even the wind and the sea," but since "καὶ... καὶ..." can function as a correlative, that phrase could also be translated as "both the wind and the sea."  In that reading and because ἄνεμος is masculine and θάλασσα is feminine (as opposed to two words of the same grammatical gender), there's an even greater sense of the range of creation that is obedient to Jesus.

That said, I do think "even the wind and the sea" is a better translation.  Even provides greater emphasis.