byākaraṇasuttaṃ (AN 10.84)84 (4) Declaration
635There the Venerable Mahāmoggallāna addressed the bhikkhus: “Friends, bhikkhus!”
636“Friend,” those bhikkhus replied. The Venerable Mahāmoggallāna said this:
637“Here, friends, a bhikkhu declares final knowledge thus: ‘I understand: “Destroyed is birth, the spiritual life has been lived, what had to be done has been done, there is no more coming back to any state of being.”’ The Tathāgata [156] or his disciple who is a jhāna-attainer—skilled in attainment, skilled in others’ minds, skilled in the ways of others’ minds—questions him, interrogates him, and cross-examines him. When he is being questioned, interrogated, and cross-examined by the Tathāgata or his disciple, he comes to an impasse and is flustered. He meets with calamity, meets with disaster, meets with calamity and disaster.
B.Bodhi seems to render "ariyasavako" as noble-disciple all the time, or almost all of the time. Thanissaro usually renders it disciple of the noble ones. In Context of different passages, sometimes it seems it can only be noble-disciple. I asked Ajahn Brahmali once, he believes it's always "noble disciple".♦ 84. tatra kho āyasmā mahāmoggallāno bhikkhū āmantesi — “āvuso bhikkhave”ti. “āvuso”ti kho te bhikkhū āyasmato mahāmoggallānassa paccassosuṃ. āyasmā mahāmoggallāno etadavoca —
♦ “idhāvuso, bhikkhu aññaṃ byākaroti — ‘khīṇā jāti, vusitaṃ brahmacariyaṃ, kataṃ karaṇīyaṃ, nāparaṃ itthattāyāti pajānāmī’ti. tamenaṃ tathāgato vā tathāgatasāvako vā jhāyī samāpattikusalo paracittakusalo paracittapariyāyakusalo samanuyuñjati samanuggāhati samanubhāsati. so tathāgatena vā tathāgatasāvakena vā jhāyinā samāpattikusalena paracittakusalena paracittapariyāyakusalena samanuyuñjiyamāno samanuggāhiyamāno samanubhāsiyamāno irīṇaṃ āpajjati vicinaṃ VAR āpajjati anayaṃ āpajjati byasanaṃ āpajjati anayabyasanaṃ āpajjati.
In the passage quoted above, with tathagata-savako, unlike ariya-savako, bodhi renders this as "disciple of tathagata". Can someone explain please? Are both types of renderings grammatically legal, and we need context to determine which one fits?