hOUTOS/EKEINOS

clayton stirling bartholomew c.s.bartholomew at worldnet.att.net
Sun Dec 3 21:26:27 EST 2000


on 12/03/00 5:07 PM, RHutchin at aol.com wrote:

> Recently, I was presented with the following argument.  The person cited A
> Primer of Biblical Greek by N. Clayton Croy (Eerdmans, 1999) as stating,
> "Biblical Greek, like English, had a 'near' demonstrative, hOUTOS, for
> something relatively close in time, space or thought, and a 'far'
> demonstrative, EKEINOS, for something relatively distant."
> 
> Based on this, the person argues that Jesus, by using the 'near'
> demonstrative, hOUTOS, in Matt 24:34 could only have been referring to those
> to whom he was physically speaking.  Had Jesus wanted to refer to a future
> generation, he would have had to use the word EKEINOS.
> 
> Is his argument valid?
> 
> Roger Hutchinson

Roger,

Louw & Nida have: 

92.29 hOUTOS a reference to an entity regarded as a part of the discourse
setting.

92.30 EKEINOS a reference to an entity regarded as relatively absent in
terms of the discourse setting.

Most of the controversy surrounding Matt 24:34 has to with the referents of
hH GENEA and PANTA TAUTA. There seems to be little discussion in the
scholars I looked at (L. Morris, H.A.W Meyer, W. Hendrickson, A. Plummer, H.
Alford) about the sense of hOUTOS.

Is the following  argument valid?

>Jesus, by using the 'near'
> demonstrative, hOUTOS, in Matt 24:34 could only have been referring to those
> to whom he was physically speaking.  Had Jesus wanted to refer to a future
> generation, he would have had to use the word EKEINOS.

I think the argument is misleading since it sets up a sort of pseudo
disjunction (either/or) along a fault line where there isn't much if any
disagreement. In other words we could grant that hAUTH in Matt. 24:34 is "a
reference to an entity regarded as a part of the discourse setting," without
granting the conclusion implied in the quote above.

BTW, thanks for drawing my attention to:

Primer of Biblical Greek by N. Clayton Croy (Eerdmans, 1999)

It turns out that my local library has this book and I am looking forward to
seeing it in a few days.
 
--  
Clayton Stirling Bartholomew
Three Tree Point
P.O. Box 255 Seahurst WA 98062





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