II Timothy 1:12,14-PARAQHKH

Clwinbery at aol.com Clwinbery at aol.com
Mon May 21 12:47:40 EDT 2001



In a message dated 5/21/01 11:28:14 AM, lws39 at juno.com writes:

>12-DI HN AITIAN KAI TAUTA PASCW ALL OUK EPAISCUNOMAI OIDA GAR W
>PEPISTEUKA KAI PEPEISMAI OTI DUNATOS ESTIN THN PARAQHKHN MOU FULAKSAI(?)
>EIS EKEINHN THN HMERAN
>14-THN KAKHN PARAQHKHN FULAKSON(?) DIA PNEUMATOS AGIOU TOU ENOIKOUNTOS
>EV
>HMIN
>
>Pardon my transcription of FULASSW. That one letter escapes me.
>
>My question relates to the translation  of PARAQHKH found in the KJV and
>NASB. Is there a textual variant here that Nestles doesn't give? The
>translation runs-"because he is able to keep that which I have committed
>unto him"(12)  and "guard that which has been entrusted to you"(14). What
>is the origin/basis of this translation?
>
>Permit me one more question. I went to the b-greek archive and tried to
>access sunsite but it came up empty-no page found. Did I miss something?
>
walt seevers, I must admit that sometimes I have trouble with the archives. 
There is a rather long string in the archives on this subject. The question 
you are asking is really about the relationship of the genitive MOU to the 
noun PARAQHKH. Some grammars talk of this as a genitive with a noun of 
action. The key is that the noun has to indicate that someone is doing 
something. The question is, "who is doing the action?" An illustration in 
English that has a direct Greek counterpart would be the "love of Christ." Is 
Christ doing the loving - the noun in the genitive would be the subject of 
the action of loving. However, the noun in the genitive could be the 
recipient of the action of loving, some call this the objective genitive 
since the noun (pronoun) in the genitive receives the action. Now many will 
question the necessity of such categories and will indicate that the writer 
left the expression intentionally ambiguous so that the reader would see it 
as both rather than either/or.  In the case of the verse you refer to no 
translations I know (or can remember) leaves it ambiguous. There is no 
textual problem here. The translation I prefer because of the context (1 Tim. 
6:20, the rest of 2 Tim. 1 and the first few verses in 2 Tim. 2) is the RSV. 
"He is able to guard that which he has entrusted to me." Those who use such 
categories call this objective genitive. Others simply indicate that it is a 
genitive doing what genitives do, modifying a substantive, i.e., adding 
meaning to the word PARAQHKH.

Carlton Winbery
Louisiana College



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