2 Cor. 8:22 / 1Pt. 1:7 - πολὺ σπουδαιότερον / τιμιώτερον
Posted: January 1st, 2015, 11:22 am
This is a question about a grammatical feature that occurs in both these two passages.
It arose after looking into the point that came up while preparing Xen. Oec. 4. when Socrates talking about the effects of working in an indoor job is portrayed as saying;
Here are the New Testament verses with a roughly parallel construction:
In classical usage, there are some examples of where πολύ is added to an adjective to give it more force. σφόδρα and ἰσχυρῶς are also used with adjectives, but I can't find Smyth's discussion of that.
My question is whether in either or both of these cases (and in Greek in general), the πολὺ strengthens the semantic (meaning) element of the adjective or the grammatical element (-ότερον) of the comparative?
It arose after looking into the point that came up while preparing Xen. Oec. 4. when Socrates talking about the effects of working in an indoor job is portrayed as saying;
For an explanation by way of syntax, I prefer to take the genitive in the first part of the phrase as following the comparative -ότερος. That seems more cohesive than taking it as a genitive absolute which is fairly un-attached to what follows it. In another way, this passage is a little similar to 1 Corinthians 1:25 Ὅτι τὸ μωρὸν τοῦ θεοῦ σοφώτερον τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐστίν, καὶ τὸ ἀσθενὲς τοῦ θεοῦ ἰσχυρότερον τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐστίν.τῶν δὲ σωμάτων θηλυνομένων καὶ αἱ ψυχαὶ πολὺ ἀρρωστότεραι γίγνονται.
Even the souls (of those artisans who work indoors) are becoming much weaker than the(ir) bodies which are becoming womanly (soft).
Here are the New Testament verses with a roughly parallel construction:
"Very earnestly now, more than before." "Earnestly now, a lot more than before". It is difficult to express the difference nuance in English for the Xenophon quote.2 Corinthians 8:22 wrote:Συνεπέμψαμεν δὲ αὐτοῖς τὸν ἀδελφὸν ἡμῶν, ὃν ἐδοκιμάσαμεν ἐν πολλοῖς πολλάκις σπουδαῖον ὄντα, νυνὶ δὲ πολὺ σπουδαιότερον, πεποιθήσει πολλῇ τῇ εἰς ὑμᾶς.
1 Peter 1:7 Byz 2005 wrote:ἵνα τὸ δοκίμιον ὑμῶν τῆς πίστεως πολὺ τιμιώτερον χρυσίου τοῦ ἀπολλυμένου,
Here, the different spellings suggest different interpretations of this issue. πολὺ τιμιώτερον putting the πολὺ with the -ότερον - like πολὺ μᾶλλον (LSJ πολύς III.2), while πολυτιμότερον puts πολυ with τιμ- first, and adds the comparative element later.1 Peter 1:7 Byz NAUBS wrote:ἵνα τὸ δοκίμιον ὑμῶν τῆς πίστεως πολυτιμότερον χρυσίου τοῦ ἀπολλυμένου,
In classical usage, there are some examples of where πολύ is added to an adjective to give it more force. σφόδρα and ἰσχυρῶς are also used with adjectives, but I can't find Smyth's discussion of that.
My question is whether in either or both of these cases (and in Greek in general), the πολὺ strengthens the semantic (meaning) element of the adjective or the grammatical element (-ότερον) of the comparative?