Re: Would you mind telling me whether these sentences are correct?

Bob wrote:
Donna Richoux wrote:
Bob wrote: 

Compare and contrast:

      "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." "Let he,
      who is without sin, cast the first stone."

I read the original as being paralell in structure to the first of
those quotes.


Except, unfortunately, that it is neither one. It can't be "Let he",
contrary to popular opinion.


Hmm. Not sure I agree with that. "he who is without sin" is a
perfectly good noun phrase so it fits right in with "Let <noun> throw
the first stone".

Even when it is a noun phrase, it has to be in the objective. Most of the time there is no noticable difference, but when there's a pronoun involved, there is.


The King James Version has:

     KJV John 8:7  When therefore they continued asking him, he
     lifted up himself, and said to them, He that is without sin
     among you, let him first cast a stone at her.


So my example wasn't an exact quote from this version (translation) of
the Bible. None the less it is a very common expression and perfectly
gramitacal, in my opinion. Your quote above also uses the nearly
identical phrase ("he that is without sin among you") as a noun
phrase as well, even though the quote is different.

Yes, the quote is quite different, because the sentence construction is completely different. Still, notice the "Let him first cast ...".

I Googled "he who is" and found that "Let he who is without sin" used
in many places, including a bible-study site. It was the title of a
Star Treck episode. It was used in a review of Sin City. "Let he who
is without brains" was used in a review of the Jerry Springer Show.
"Let he whose buffer has never overflowed cast the first aspersion"
was used in a discussion of security exposures in software.

Yeah, so much for the knowledge of English of those whose discuss such things. They do believe what they see in *their* bible, though.

Another bible quote (Book of revalations chapter 22):

Let he who is unjust be unjust still, the filthy be filthy still

Here is a similar quote:

He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and He will reward him
for what he has done.
Proverbs 19:17

That one is perfect and not an example of what is being discussed. Notice the "him" where it is required.

And some more from a translatopn of an Egyptian script:

Verily, he who is yonder will be a living god,
Averting the ill of him who does it

Again, this is correct. There's a "he" there and a "him", both where they should be.

Many others can be found.

True, but it seems you are not understanding the grammatical structure of what you are finding.


The Revised Standard Version (1962) relegates John 8:1-11 to a
footnote (meaning it is of dubious authenticity) and has:

     "And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them,
     'Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a
     stone at her.'"


Not sure about this one ("let him who ..."). Google shows lots of
references but I honestly don't remember ever hearing it before.

Well, that's the way it should be in today's English. I don't know anything about the English of olden times.
--
Skitt (in Hayward, California)
www.geocities.com/opus731/

.

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