John 20:28 and Smart's rule.

Dan Parker stoixein at sdf.lonestar.org
Thu Feb 1 16:09:07 EST 2001


> Hi all-
> 
> Thomas addresses Jesus and declares hO KURIOS MOU KAI hO QEOS MOU =
> (vocative).
> 
> Does the vocative in this case mean strictly speaking that Thomas is =
> addressing Jesus as Lord and God, or are we permitted to interpret =
> Thomas' reply as a general exclamation NOT addressed to Jesus, i.e. =
> "Wow! My God! Look, the holes in your hands and side!"
> 
> Tom

Tom, 
You might want to check the archives from last October/November 2000
where this construction was dicussed at length.  They  can be found at
the B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek.

The rule is stated as:

        "In native [not translation] KOINE Greek when the copulative
        KAI connects two substantives of personal description in regimen
        [i.e. both or neither have articles] and the first substantive
        alone is modified by the personal pronoun in the genitive or
        repeated for perspicuity [Winer 147-148;155] two persons or
        groups of persons are in view."

There is no example in the GNT where this construction has one person
in view.

I was asked off-list to provide all the examples which support this
rule in the GNT, and did email it to the individual, but had never posted
the list to B-GREEK.  The categories are as follows:


	Possessive pronoun repeated for perspicuity (21) - (Mt 12:47,49;
	Mk 3:31 ,32 ,33 ,34 ; 6:4  7:10 ; 8:20, 21  Lu	8:21 ; Jn 2:12
	; 4:12; Ac 2:17; Ro 16:21 ; 1Th 3:11 ; 2Th 2:16 ; 1Ti 1:1;
	2Ti 1:5;  Heb 8:11; Re 6:11) [Heb 1:7 is a LXX quote and is
	therefore  translation Greek.]


	Single possessive - both substantives anarthrous (10) - (Mk 3:35;
	Ro 1:7; 1Co 1:3; 2Co 1:2; Ga 1:3; Ep 1:2; Php 1:2; 2Th 1:1,2;
	Phil 1:3)


	Single possessive pronoun - both substantives arthrous (12)  -
	(Mk 6:21; 10:7,19; 16:7; Lk 2:23; 14:26; 18:20; Jn 11:5; Eph 6:2;
	Ac 7:14; 10:24; Re 11:18)

Sincerely,
Dan Parker



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