[B-Greek] 1Cor 12:28

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sun Oct 12 06:53:20 EDT 2003


At 8:28 PM -0600 10/11/03, Maurice Fuller wrote:
>The question I was trying to address was the recent teaching that
>(present-day) apostles are a cut above other ministries such as prophets
>and teachers, using 1Cor.12:28 as support. It appears to me that this
>passage, with PRWTON, DEUTERON and TRITON having to be adverbs rather than
>adjectives, cannot support a meaning of first in rank as adjectives
>modifying the three plural nouns. As adverbs would they not have to have
>the meaning of first,second and third in time (when the action of EQETO
>took place)? Can they as adverbs refer to rank without some other
>syntactical evidence? I have no interest in the cessationalist or
>non-cessationalist implications.

In this forum we are not concerned with doctrinal implications at all, but
only with exploration of what the Greek text may legitimately be understood
to mean, including whether there are alternative possibilities.

Although one might like to setting this question definitively in terms of
Greek usage, I really don't think that a definitive conclusion can be drawn
from these adverbs in the passage as to whether the writer intended to
indicate temporal sequence or simply enumerative sequence, as when one
draws up a list and designates items as (1), (2), (3), etc. That sequence
MAY but does NOT NECESSARILY imply temporal priority or hierarchical
priority;it MAY simply be a counting device. That ambivalence seems to me
to be indicated in what BDAG says in 1.b.B ofits entry on PRWTOS as cited
below:

--------------
PRWTOS, H, ON
  1. pert. to being first in a sequence, inclusive of time, set (number),
or space, first of several, but also when only two persons or things are
involved (= PROTEROS; exx. in Hdb. on J 1:15; Rdm.2 71f; Thackeray 183; s.
also Mlt. 79; 245; B-D-F §62; Rob. 516; 662; and s. Mt 21:31 v.l.).
  a. of time first, earliest, earlier
    A. as adj.
    B. the neuter PRWTON as adv., of time first, in the first place,
before, earlier, to begin with
  b. of number or sequence (the area within which this sense is valid
cannot be marked off w. certainty from the area 1aA)
    A. as adj.
    B. adv., the neuter PRWTON of sequence in enumerations (not always
clearly distinguished fr. sense 1ab) first PRWTON APOSTOLOUS, DEUTERON
PROPHETAS ... 1 Cor 12:28 (Mitt-Wilck. I/2, 20 II, 10ff [II AD] TO PRWTON
... TO DEUTERON ... TO TRITON. Without the art. 480, 12ff [II AD]; Diod. S.
36, 7, 3; Tat. 40, 1). See Hb 7:2; Js 3:17.-Not infrequently Paul begins w.
PRWTON MEN without continuing the series, at least in form (B-D-F §447, 4;
Rob. 1152. For pr. without continuation s. Plat., Ep. 7, 337b, Plut., Mor.
87b; Jos., Ant. 1, 182; Ath. 27, 1 PRWTA MEN) Ro 1:8; 3:2; 1 Cor 11:18. S.
also 2 Cl 3:1
-- 

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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