[B-Greek] Gal 4:8: TOIS MH OUSIN QEIOS

moon at mail.sogang.ac.kr moon at mail.sogang.ac.kr
Sun Apr 25 21:02:58 EDT 2004


I recently read Gal 4:8-9, and found out something that look
unfamiliar to me. 

ALLA TOTE MEN OUK EIDOTES QEON EDOULEUSATE TOIS FUSIS MH OUSIN QEIOS.
NUN DE GNONTES QEON MALLON DE GNWSQENTES  hUPO QEOU.


(1) In this context, TOIS MH OUSIN QEIOS refer to other gods they were serving.
    Then, it implies that TW WN QEOIS would refer to Yaweh, the only true god. 
    Then it implies that QEIOS is a property that can be attributed only to 
    Yaweh the only true god, not to other gods.

    But the above interpretation of word QEIOS seems to be againt the common
    usage of word QEIOS, which would be used to describe gods less than Yaweh
    the only true god. 

    I wonder if TOIS MH OUSIN QEOS would better serve Paul's purpose here, or
    my understanding of QEIOS is wrong.

    I ask this question because some say that John in 1.1c did not write
    QEIOS HN hO LOGOS but QEOS HN ho LOGOS, and think that the two convey
    quite different meanings.
 
    
(2) EIDOTES QEON, GNONTES QEON:

   The context certainly implies that they came to know Yaweh, the only
   true god, the god of Jesus Christ, the god of Abraham and Issac and Jacob.
   But I wonder why Paul did not write TON QEON in this context. I searched
   for QEON in NT, and found out 150 matches.  I searched for the cases
   where QEON is used as the direct object of a verb. I excluded PP + QEON
   (It is well known
   that after prepositions, nouns are typically without articles). Also I 
   excluded the cases where QEON is used as a predicate noun (e.g. John 10.33,
   2. Thess 2.4). In most of the remaining cases, TON QEON is used rather than QEON.  

   The exceptions are

    John 1:18: QEON OUDEIS EWRAKEN PWPOTE.
    2John 1:9: PAS hO PROAGWN KAIMH MENWN EN TH DIDACH TOU CRISTOU QEON OUK EXEI.
    Titus 1:16 QEON hOMOLOGOUSIN EIDENAI, TOIS DE ERGOIS ARNOUNTAI.
    2 Thess 1:8: DIDONTOS EKDIKHSIN TOIS MH EIDOSIN QEON
    Gal 4.8,9.

Paul is able to write GNONTES TON QEON (Rom 1:21) instead of GNONTES QEON (Gal 4:8).
So, I wonder if the two phrases have different nuances or no difference at all.

Sincerely
Moon

Moon Ryul Jung
Sogang Univ, Seoul, Korea

 


  


Moon R. Jung
Associate Professor
Dept of Media Technology
Graduate School of Media Comm
Sogang Univ, Seoul, Korea





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