[B-Greek] James 5:16B Followup

Clwinbery at aol.com Clwinbery at aol.com
Wed May 14 17:37:59 EDT 2003


In a message dated 5/13/2003 4:04:11 PM Eastern Standard Time, waldoslusher at yahoo.com writes:

> Sir:   
> 
> --- Clwinbery at aol.com wrote:
> > Waldo Slusher
> > 
> > >POLU ISCUEI DEHSIS DIKAIOU ENERGOUMENH
> > 
> > >Can this mean something like:
> > 
> > >the prayer of a righteous man avails much because
> > he
> > >energizes it (with action)?
> > 
> > >Taking ENERGOUMENH as reason or cause.
> > 
> > Waldo, ENERGOUMENH agrees with DEHSIS in case gender
> > and number. Therefore 
> > DEHSIS is the subject of the action of the
> > participle not the righteous man. 
> > This is a circumstantial participle and seems best
> > to me to be translated 
> > "the prayer of a righteous person being effective
> > avails much" or "The 
> > effective prayer of a righteous person avails much."
> 
> Thank you for this reply. What is the semantical force
> of ENERGOUMENH as it relates to DEHSIS, given your
> translation of "effective...." In other words, WHAT
> makes it effective? Is that unstated in this text or
> can some semantical force of ENERGOUMENH answer this
> question? I hope I am being clear enough with my
> thoughts.
>
The participle grammatically makes an assertion about the noun that it modifies and also indicates a circumstance that relates to the main verb. I would say that it says that the prayer of a DIKAIOU (person) is capable of bringing something about. 

Carlton Winbery
LA College



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