[B-Greek] James 1:3
Iver Larsen
iver_larsen at sil.org
Tue Dec 30 01:49:54 EST 2003
> James 1:3 reads:
>
> GINWSKONTES hOTI TO DOKIMION hUMWN THS PISTEWS KATERGAZETAI hUPOMONHN
>
> This might be obvious, but what does hUMWN modify? I think it is
> quite obvious that it modifies THS PISTEWS. Could it modify TO
> DOKIMION? Is there a rule relating to this?
>
> Jonathan Colby
> Guyana, South America
Normally a possessive pronoun like hUMWN follows what it modifies. If there
is focus on the pronoun, it is fronted to come before what it modifies. From
this rule, I would say that hUMWN grammatically modifies TO DOKIMION.
Several mss of minor importance have moved hUMWN to come after THS PISTEWS
in order to connect it more naturally with PISTEWS. There is no contextual
reason to focus on hUMWN.
However, it doesn't really make much difference, because DOKIMION THS
PISTEWS is a unit of two nouns: faith-testing (an objective genitive, if you
want). From the beginning of v. 2 we have the appeal by James to the readers
to count it a joyful experience when they go through many different kinds of
testings. And that "faith-testing of yours" or "your faith-testing" produces
endurance, so count it joy, as you see the results.
Mike has suggested that DOKIMION may here have the sense of "genuineness" (a
derived nominal from the adjective DOKIM(I)OS - proven, genuine), but BADG
lists James 1:3 under sense 1 "testing, means of testing", based on context,
whereas the other sense is found in 1 Pet 1:7.
L&N also have the two senses, the primary one being "testing" 27.45, and the
secondary one being the outcome of the testing, namely "proven genuineness"
73.3.
And L&N has interpreted Jas 1:3 to indicate the sense of testing, since they
list this passage under 27.45.
DOKIMION is an interesting word, and it is clearly their faith (or
faithfulness) that is being tested. As Mike has said, we can think of the
phrase in stages. First the testing that you undergo (your testing), and
then the specific object of testing, that is, your faith. It is assumed that
they will pass the test, and in the 1 Pet 1:7 passage which has many lexical
similarities with Jas 1:3, the focus is on the outcome of the testing,
namely their proven, genuine faith(fullness).
So, the word can mean either "a test to prove", "proven by testing" or
"provenness/genuineness" with a great deal of overlap with DOKIMH.
Iver Larsen
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list