MH MHTI and MH OUK

Alan Hultberg alan.hultberg at truth.biola.edu
Fri Jul 6 17:12:11 EDT 2001



Iver Larsen wrote:

>
>This is the text:
>>  Jas 2:1 --
>>  ADELFOI MOU, MH EN PROSWPOLHMYIAIS ECETE THN PISTIN TOU KURIOU hMWN
>>  IHSOU CRISTOU THS DOXHS.
>
>It is hard to give a brief translation into English of the circumstantial,
>emphatic prepositional phrase EN PROSWPOLHMYIAIS. It almost has to come out
>as a dependent clause, and the noun itself is complex. Partiality or
>favoritism does not quite cover it, I think. Let me try:
>
>My brothers, if you treat people according to outward appearance or status,
>you don't have the faith of our glorious Lord, Jesus Christ, do you?
>
>(I am using "having faith" because a few verses down (2:14-18) James is
>saying that claiming to "have faith" without corresponding action is in fact
>a denial of that very faith.)
>
>Is this not a possible understanding of the grammar of this verse? Is there
>any other possible grammatical analysis?
>

Iver,

Your understanding of the grammar is certainly acceptable, though 
James could equally be understood to be stating a prohibition (taking 
ECETE as imperative rather than indicative), unless I missed 
something in your opening analysis.  A quick Accordance search yields 
hundreds of examples of clause initial MH negating imperatives. 
Glancing quickly at the data, Rom 14:15, 20 seem to me to be exact 
parallels to James 2:1.

I haven't looked, but I'm sure that this is how most translators have 
understood the grammar.

Yours,

Alan Hultberg



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