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Re: Phil. 2.13? (gram. subj.?)



On Tue, 1 Nov 1994 rod.j.decker@uwrf.edu wrote:
> So that newcomers don't get the wrong impression that they have
> accidentally subscribed to the "b-Q" list rather than b-greek :) I'd like
> to pose a question in a grammatical area. (I'm not complaining about the Q
> thread;  it's been interesting even though prudence has suggested that I
> keep my mouth shut and just listen!)
> 
> Phil. 2:13, 'Theos gar estin ho energwn en humin...'
> 
> 1. Which is the subject ('Theos' or 'ho energwn')?
> 2. Is this a convertible or subset proposition?

Well, Rod, you have thrown out an interesting new PROBLHMA. Before I read 
through the rest of your explication de Porter, I thought maybe your 
question was going to focus on the verb "energwn", which I myself find 
fascinating here, but that was not to be.

Have you anticipated the desired response by capitalizing "theos"? 
Probably not; some texts DO capitalize the first word of a sentence, 
other editors prefer not to do so in Greek texts.

My initial reaction (aside from thinking that this is a TRICK QUESTION) 
is that "ho energwn" is the real subject in this clause and that "theos" 
is the predicate word; that said, however, I'd have to go on and say that 
this is pretty close to a convertible proposition.

James Tauber could tell us right off the bat how often in the Pauline 
corpus (however extensive one wishes to consider the corpus) "theos" 
appears with and without the article. Offhand I really don't know; I do 
know that we usually--but not always--find Paul using the article with 
"kyrios." What are the statistics for "theos"? Of course we would 
translate "theos" as God (at least I hope we wouldn't follow that 
translation of "theos hn ho logos" -- "a god was the word." At any rate, 
I think the statistics on "theos" with and without the article may be 
helpful. My vote, for what it's worth: the subject is "ho energwn." 
 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
(314) 935-4018
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu  OR cwc@oui.com



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