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NIV

Luke 11:27 As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.”

28He replied, “Blessed rather (μενοῦν/μενοῦνγε) are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”

[Luk 11:28 MGNT] (28) αὐτὸς δὲ εἶπεν μενοῦν/μενοῦνγε μακάριοι οἱ ἀκούοντες τὸν λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ φυλάσσοντες

New Living Translation

Jesus replied, “But even more blessed are all who hear the word of God and put it into practice.”

Berean Literal Bible

And He said, "No rather, blessed are those hearing the word of God and keeping it."

Does BLB imply that Mary is not blessed?

King James Bible

But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.

4 Answers 4

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There is a small difference between the NA28/UBS5 text which says Μενοῦν; vs the Byzantine/TR text which has Μενοῦνγε. However, the meaning is identical.

Essentially, the OP asks about how the word μενοῦνγε (menoun and menounge) should be translated.

It occurs only three times in the NT, Luke 11;28, Rom 9:20, 10:18 and is used as disjunctive particle. As μὲν οὖν also occurs in Phil 3:8, BDAG has this:

(also μὲν οὖν) and Μενοῦνγε particle used especially in answers, to emphasize or correct ... at the beginning of a clause, rather, on the contrary **Luke 11:28. Indeed Rom 10:18. More than that Phil 3:8. on the contrary, who are you ...? Rom 9:20.

In this case, I would say that in Luke 11:28, the best translation would be, "No, rather", or, "On the contrary", or similar.

That is, Jesus is trying to move the emphasis from people to the eternal "Word of God" that gives eternal live.

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"Berean Literal Bible

  • And He said, 'No rather, blessed are those hearing the word of God and keeping it.'

Does BLB imply that Mary is not blessed?"

This is a response to this part of the question, not to the translation of the text.

Jesus' statement does not necessarily lead to the conclusion that Mary is not blessed. Rather, the intent may be to clarify the reason why she is blessed, that is, because she heard the word of God and kept it. Reference her response to the angel:

  • Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word. (Lk 1:38)
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This is a very common theme of Jesus. Remember, after saying that He was the living bread which came down from heaven, we saw in John 6:61-63 a restatement of the same thing:

When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Then, He went on to talk about believing or unbelieving in verse 64:

But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.

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  • Hi @BillPorter and thank you for the response. You'll need to work from the Greek rather than the English to correctly answer this question.
    – Ruminator
    Jan 5, 2021 at 0:51
  • @Ruminator I wanted to draw attention to the common thread of one example showing the OP's citation being that the woman was speaking about Jesus' birth in the flesh, and Jesus rather wanted to shift the importance of that to His "Word." In my answer I especially noted that Jesus did not say that the flesh profiteth little, but rather, "the flesh profiteth nothing". Likewise, the OP's question is asking--relatively--the same thing, unless I am wrong about the question--a strong possibility since I don't speak Greek. Jan 5, 2021 at 16:41
  • The problem is that the word in question does not appear in John 6:61-63.
    – Ruminator
    Jan 5, 2021 at 16:52
  • @Ruminator That is a good point. I'm over my head with the language at issue. I only hope that the Greek meaning does not conflict with the peripheral issue that I was raising. Nevertheless, I'm all ears--can you imagine what I look like being all ears? Jan 5, 2021 at 19:12
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A good translation of μενοῦνγε or μενοῦν is 'more so' or 'rather', which is is probably closest to the NIV, NLT, or ESV translation; 28'But He said, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"' in this case? I've noticed that if you use that translation for the other instances, such as Romans 9:20, Rom 10:18, and Php 3:8, those passages will still make sense in the context of the whole chapter, and also the context of any referred to scripture such as chapters from the old testament. Even the most-trusted translations we have are very inconsistent for the translation of this particular word as it stands, as you can see by the KJV translation.

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