The structures of Gal 2:4 and 2:6

moon-ryul jung moon at mail.sogang.ac.kr
Tue Apr 23 01:14:36 EDT 2002


Moon-Ryul Jung
Sogang Univ, Seoul, Korea

Serve God and Be Cheerful.

> >Gal 2:4-5 reads:
> >
> >4 DIA DE TOUS PAREISAKTOUS YEUDADELFOUS hOITINES PAREISHLQON
> >KATASKOPHSAI THN ELEUQERIAN hHMWN [...]
> >5 hOIS OUDE PROS hWRAN EIXAMEN THi hUTOTAGHi hINA hH ALHQEIA TOU
> >  EUAGGELIOU DIAMEINHi PROS hUMAS.

[Carl]
> Yes; I dealt first with your later question about Gal 2:2 and there noted
> my view that the writing here is very loose, even conversational, rather
> than composed with careful rhetoric (in fact, at least the whole first two
> chapters here strike me as having been written very quickly and in a
> turbulent state of mind). For that reason, I think that the sequence in
> these verses is better explained in terms of a grammatical anacoluthon,
> i.e. that Paul started writing and switched horses/grammatical
> structures--in mid-stream/mid-sentence. I think that it's best to carry
> over the construction exactly or nearly exactly as it stands in the
> original Greek: "But because of the false brothers who were sneaked in to
> snoop and do espionage on our liberty (I didn't yield to submit for a
> moment to them in my concern to preserve for you intact the truth of the
> gospel!)--but on the part of those reputed to be of some importance (it
> doesn't matter to me what they were--God doesn't pay attention to what's on
> the surface--the reputed people didn't lay any additional obligation upon
> me."

[Moon]

But switching horses/grammatical structures in mid-stream/mid-sentence
 would often make perfect sense. I had a professor who very often restarted
his sentences. He spoke very fast and was very anxious to deliver his message.
I had no problem with him. But in this case, it is almost intolerable, if your understanding
is correct.  After hearing "Because of the false brothers who were sneaked in
to snoop and do espionage on our liberty, to whom I did not yield for a moment
in my concern to preserve for you intact the truth of the gospel", the hearer
would expect to hear what happened because of  that. But he goes on to
those reputed immediately.  Did he mean to say that "because of them, 
I had some trouble", but he did not? 

Moon
Moon R. Jung
Sogang Univ, Seoul, Korea



 This is all very choppy; Paul voices a phrase and then comments on it
> parenthetically before proceeding to his next point, and in the course of
> this, his grammatical chain has been badly interrupted. This is the way we
> talk, and our letters sometimes take this kind of "tack" or oblique sort of
> movement from point to point. That's what I think is happening here.
> -- 
> 
> Carl W. Conrad
> Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
> Most months:: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
> cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad at ioa.com
> WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
> 
> 
> 
> 


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