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
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list