"The story about Luther is true because Greg Crane says it is!"
> On Apr 14, 2015, at 10:06 AM, Gregory Crane <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Dear List,
>
> I am preparing a talk about authority, data and scholarship and I would like to see if anyone can give me the source for a story that I heard decades ago and never forgot.
>
> When I was in high school, one of my teachers -- an English Benedictine -- told us the following story. Martin Luther was arguing with someone -- I think it may have been Erasmus -- about the text of the Greek New Testament. The argument turned over whether a particular verb was in the indicative or the subjunctive and thus whether to read omega or omicron. The argument went on for some time and whatever unfortunately soul was arguing with Martin Luther had the audacity to rely upon philological argumentation. In the end, an exasperated Luther had had enough and declared: "It is an omega, because Martin Luther says it is!"
>
> Does anyone have a source for that?
>
> Greg
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