THi ELEUQERIAi in Gal 5:1 Dative of Advantage or Purpose?

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Jun 1 09:42:12 EDT 1999


At 4:35 PM -0400 5/31/99, Joseph Brian Tucker wrote:
>Greetings
>
>THi ELEUQERIAi hHMAS CRISTOS HLEUQERWSEN STHKETE OUN KAI PALIN ZUGW
>DOULEIAS ENECESQE
>
>Gal 5.1 begins with no transition and it seems a peculiar use of the dative
>case. Is it better to see it as advantage or purpose? My concern is how to
>understand THi ELEUQERIAi as a limitation of the verb HLEUQERWSEN.

This is a good question, and your phrasing of it is interesting. I can't
say that I recognize any authentic "dative of purpose" in Greek (unless one
wants to consider EPI + Dative phrases, perhaps) although it is one of the
most common of all LATIN datives (which is more grist for my intended study
of Latin influence on Koine Greek). And a dative of advantage normally is
found with the name of a person. Although Paul has just talked about the
free woman (hH ELEUQERA) and the servant woman (hH PAIDISKH), I don't think
we'd want to say that ELEUQERIAi here involves personification of
'Freedom'. I think therefore that it would probably be best to understand
ELEUQERIAi as an instrumental dative, perhaps causal--and maybe that comes
to being practically equivalent to a purpose: "By reason of freedom has
Christ set us free."

As for transition, note that USB4 makes 5:1 the conclusion of an integral
section inclusive of 4:21-5:1; there's a sharper break between 5:1 and 5:2.
But 5:1 appears to be the "moral" of the allegorical presentation of Isaac
and Ishmael, Sarah and Hagar.

[One other thought occurs to me that I am rather reluctant to suggest,
because I don't think of Paul's Greek as normally reflective of Semitic
idiom; yet ELEUQERIAi ELEUQERWSEN is in fact the sort of "cognate" Greek
verbal expression that is commonly used in the LXX to translate the
emphatic Hebrew "construct-infinitives." I suppose it is at least
conceivable that this is what we actually have here; if that were so (and I
rather doubt it), then the clause should probably be understood: "Christ
has 'freedom-freed' us."]

>Second, Does STHKETE require one to break the sentence or is it
>grammatically connected with 5:1a?

My text (USB4/NA27) punctuates this verse with a raised dot after
HLEUQERWSEN; I don't know if it has affected your understanding, but you
did omit a vital MH in your transcription above; it should read STHKETE OUN
KAI *MH* PALIN ZUGWi DOULEIAS ENECESQE. I understand this sequence of
imperatives as grounded in the assertion of the opening clause (THi
ELEUQERIAi ... HLEUQERWSEN). So I see no problem in the logical sequence.

>Third, is ENECESQE with the dative case seem abnormal?

Louw & Nida: 37.4 ENECOMAI: to be under the control of or to be subject to
someone or something - 'to be subject to, to be under the control of.' MH
PALIN ZUGWi DOULEIAS ENECESQE 'do not be subject again to the yoke of
slavery' Ga 5:1.

It seems to me that one could understand this dative either as locative or
as instrumental: that wherein one is held or that whereby one lets oneself
be held. And I think that instrumental sense of the dative is more
appropriate here.

>Fourth, to what does PALIN relate? It seems to point back to the Jewish
>law?

As I understand Paul's meaning, those to whom he writes, whether formerly
Jews or formerly Gentiles, had been "in bondage" prior to their conversion
to faith in Christ. Therefore, it seems to me that when he says, "Don't let
yourselves again be held fast in the yoke of bondage," he expresses his
anxiety lest they revert to that condition in which they stood prior to
conversion.


Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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