Ephesians 6:17 - the sword of the Spirit

Steven Lo Vullo slovullo at mac.com
Thu Oct 24 03:53:11 EDT 2002


On Wednesday, October 23, 2002, at 09:39 PM, Matthew Oakley wrote:

> Hello to all...this is my first post!
>
> Many years ago, I noted that the relative pronoun in this verse is 
> neuter,
> agreeing with pneuma, not feminine agreeing with machaira.  'The sword 
> of
> the spirit, which is the word of God' would then mean that the spirit 
> (as
> the antecedent of the pronoun) is the word of God, not the sword.  This
> would also fit the structural sequences of the preceding verses, where 
> the
> symbol is mentioned first, then the thing symbolized (e.g. breastplate 
> (1)
> of righteousness (2)).
>
> So, we have exhortations to:
>
> put on righteousness (like a breastplate)
> put on truth (like a belt)
> take up the spirit (like a sword)
>
> What do y'all think of this?

Don't think so. It is not uncommon for a relative pronoun to be 
attracted to the gender of the predicate nominative in this 
construction (RP-ESTIN-PN). In this case, the neuter singular 
nominative relative pronoun hO/ is attracted to the gender of the 
predicate nominative hRHMA, which is also neuter singular nominative. 
Note other passages like this:

Gal 3.16: TWi SPERMATI SOU, hOS ESTIN CRISTOS. Rather than agree with 
the neuter antecedent, hOS is attracted to the masculine predicate 
nominative.

Eph 3.13: DIO AITOUMAI MH EGKAKEIN EN TAIS QLIYESIN MOU hUPER hUMWN, 
hHTIS ESTIN DOXA hUMWN. Here the whole request, MH EGKAKEIN EN TAIS 
QLIYESIN MOU hUPER hUMWN, is the antecedent of hHTIS. Though we might 
have expected the neuter relative pronoun here, we have hHTIS, which is 
attracted to the feminine predicate nominative DOXA.

Eph 6.2: TIMA TON PATERA SOU KAI THN MHTERA, hHTIS ESTIN ENTOLH PRWTH 
EN EPAGGELIA... Here again, as above, we might have expected the neuter 
relative pronoun, but hHTIS is attracted to ENTOLH.

2Th 3.17 hO ASPASMOS THi EMHi CEIRI PAULOU, hO/ ESTIN SHMEION EN PASHi 
EPISTOLHi... Rather than the masculine of the antecedent ASPASMOS, hO/ 
is attracted to the gender of SHMEION.

1Tim 3.15: OIKWi QEOU ... hHTIS ESTIN EKKLHSIA QEOU ZWNTOS. Rather than 
agree with the masculine OIKWi, hHTIS is attracted to the feminine 
gender of EKKLHSIA.

I think it makes much better sense in Eph 6.17 to take the head noun 
MACAIRAN as the antecedent of hO/, which is attracted to hRHMA (cf. Heb 
4.12 for the Word working like a sword).
============

Steven R. Lo Vullo
Madison, WI




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