[B-Greek] Two datives in Heb. 4:2

Mark Lama markosl80 at yahoo.com
Tue Sep 23 17:44:42 EDT 2003


Hebrews 4:2 (UBS2): KAI GAR ESMEN EUHGGELISMENOI KAQAPER KAKEINOI, ALL' OUK WFELHSEN hO LOGOS THS AKOHS EKEINOUS, MH SUGKEKERASMENOUS THi PISTEI TOIS AKOUSASIN.
 
As many of you already realize, there are many textual variants in this verse involving the participle SUGKEKERASMENOUS. They fall into two groups, one reading it as accusative singular -OUS, and therefore making it referent to EKEINOUS, "those people", and the other as nominative singular -OS, referent to hO LOGOS THS AKOHS, "the word that they heard (lit. 'the word of hearing')". Metzger in his textual commentary on the GNT gives the committees reasons for preferring the former reading. What I am interested in here is not so much in the textual issue, as the syntax of the verse if we read the accusative plural SUGKEKERASMENOUS. Before posting this, I searched the archives under SUGKERANNUMI and found three hits from December 1998. The only one of importance here is Carl Conrad's reply to a question originally posted by Theodore H. Mann. Carl wrote: "Upon looking more closely at this verse it looks to me as if a more interesting question is raised by the fact that SUGKEKERASMENOUS
 is followed by two datives." Precisely. The BDAG would have us understand the construction thus: "The word that they heard did not benefit those who were not united with those who listened in faith." They interpret the words THi PISTEI TOIS AKOUSASI as "those who listened in faith", making TOIS AKOUSASI the dative complement of SUGKERANNUMI and THi PISTEI dependent on TOIS AKOUSASI. Personally, however, the word order seems unusual to me if this was the sense intended. I would have expected something like TOIS THi PISTEI AKOUSASI, or perhaps TOIS AKOUSASI THi PISTEI for "those who heard in faith." Looking up the verse in Blass-Debrunner-Funk I found that they got around the difficulty neatly by following the reading of Codex Sinaiticus, which has the perfect middle-passive participle in the nominative singular. However, in section 474(5) they state: "The participle is often separated from its adjuncts (classical) in one of three ways:..." To be brief, the third way that they note,
 (c), is the placement of  at least one of the adjuncts before the article-participle unit. This, however, appears to be quite rare. Perhaps the example most to the point from the GNT is Heb. 12:25: EPI GHS PARAITHSAMENOI TON CRHMATIZONTA, where the meaning from context appears to be "those who have refused him who gives divine warning on earth," thus making EPI GHS.. TON CRHMATIZONTA equivalent to TON EPI GHS CRHMATIZONTA. What are the chances of Heb. 4:2 being another example of this usage (THi PISTEI TOIS AKOUSASI=TOIS THi PISTEI AKOUSASI), as the BDAG seems to imply that it is? This is not the angle taken by Carl in his Dec. 1998 post -- he would make THi PISTEI the complement of SUGKERANNUMI, leaving TOIS AKOUSASI pretty much out in the cold -- but he expresses some confusion about the verse, "I think I'm missing something here." In view of this acknowledged difficulty, I would appreciate some further guidance here from Carl or those on the list that are well-versed in Greek
 syntax.
 
Many thanks,
 
Mark Lama


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