[B-Greek] Col. 1:13a causal pronoun FOLLOW Up

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Apr 14 16:36:37 EDT 2004


At 7:37 PM +0000 4/14/04, <dhoxworth at charter.net> wrote:
>><Mitch>
>> Then, can I take a relative (pronoun) clause
>> adverbially (causal)?
>
><doug>
>i'm not sure exactly what you're asking but i'll make an attempt.
>
>clauses can be relative, causal, comparative, local, temporal, purpose,
>result, conditional, concessive, substantival, etc. to name a few
>categories. a relative pronoun introduces a relative clause. i believe
>relative clauses may be taken substantivally, adjectivally, or
>adverbially. as to whether relative pronouns can be used to introduce a
>causal clause i don't know. that would be a question for carl conrad or
>someone else around these parts.

eecummings here (aka cwc): Your text in question is hOS ERRUSATO hHMAS EK
THS EXOUSIAS TOU SKOTOUS..., which is preceded by META CARAS EUCARISTOUNTES
TWi PATRI TWi hIKANWSANTI hUMAS ...; TWi PATRI must be the antecedent of
the hOS in 1:13; hOS is not in itself causal at all, but an interpreter
might suppose that the clause hOS ERRUSATO hHMAS somehow explains the
preceding "joyfully giving thanks to the father who has enabled you, who
has rescued us from the power of darkness"--i.e. it is assumed that the
"who has rescued us" implicitly means "inasmuch as he has rescued us." But
the relative pronoun in and of itself has no semantic causal force.
-- 

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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