[B-Greek] Prepositional Phrases

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Mon Oct 6 15:46:30 EDT 2003


At 2:01 PM -0400 10/6/03, Doug Hoxworth wrote:
>i had a question about prepositional phrases. is there a
>hard and fast rule which tells you what they modify? i
>have given two examples to illustrate what i'm asking:
>
>Mt 24:30 KAI TOTE FANHSETAI TO SHMEION TOU hUIOU TOU
>ANQRWPOU EN OURANWi
>
>does EN OURANWi modify/qualify TO SHMEION or TOU hUIOU TOU
>ANQRWPOU? in other words, is it "and then the sign of the
>Son of Man appears in heaven" or "and then the sign of
>'the Son of Man in heaven' appears"? is the prepositional
>phrase (EN OURANWi) attached to the the subject (TO
>SHMEION) or the genitive clause (TOU hUIOU TOU ANQRWPOU?
>
>Re 13:8 KAI PROSKUNHSOUSIN AUTON PANTES hOI KATOIKOUNTES
>EPI THS GHS, hOU OU GEGRAPTAI TO ONOMA AUTOU EN TWi
>BIBLIWi THS ZWHS TOU ARNIOU TOU ESFAGMENOU APO KATABOLHS
>KOSMOU.
>
>does APO KATABOLHS KOSMOU modify/qualify TOU ARNIOU TOU
>ESFAGMENOU or GEGRAPTAI? in other words, is it "the lamb
>slain from the foundation of the world" or "written from
>the foundation of the world"?
>
>is there anything hard and fast grammatical rule that one
>can employ to make this exegetical decision? what is the
>best way to decide what exactly prepositional phrases are
>modifying? thanks in advance.

In earlier Greek one could normally assume that a prepositional phrase was
adverbial UNLESS the adjective indicating that the phrase is to be
understood as so-called "attributive" to a noun or nominal expression, as,
e.g., TO SHMEION TO EN TOIS OURANOIS. In Koine that rule is much less
strictly observed. In general I think one OUGHT to try to construe
prepositional phrases with elements that they modify adverbially, if that's
possible, before trying to understand them as construing with a nominal
expression. Thus, in the examples above I would assume that EN OURANWi
construes with FANHSETAI, that APO KATABOLHS KOSMOU construes with
GEGRAPTAI; in the second passage there's no grammatical reason why APO
KATABOLHS KOSMOU couldn't construe with the participle ESFAGMENOU, but
surely it makes better sense to read "stands written ever since the
creation of the world" than to read "the lamb slaughtered ever since the
creation of the world."

On the other hand, there's the text upon which Paul builds in Roman 1:17
and elsewhere,hO (DE) DIKAIOS EK PISTEWS ZHSETAI, cited from Hab 2:4. In
terms of older Greek grammar one would normally understand EK PISTEWS as
construing with ZHSETAI, yet it is generally understood that for Paul EK
PISTEWS construes with hO DIKAIOS and so is "attributive" or adjectival. At
any rate, usage with respect to prepositional phrases is not nearly so
clear-cut in NT Koine Greek as it was in the earlier Attic.
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/



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