[B-Greek] John 20:28-29 - Defending against Arianism

Steven Lo Vullo slovullo at mac.com
Fri Aug 20 20:40:23 EDT 2004


On Aug 20, 2004, at 3:07 PM, Harold R. Holmyard III wrote:

> On Friday, January 25, 2002, at 01:45  PM, Ken Smith wrote:
>
>>  I expect what they probably mean is that it isn't in the vocative 
>> case,
>>  i.e., isn't a case of address.  Doing my best to leave theological
>>  presuppositions aside, I would probably understand hO KURIOS MOU KAI 
>> hO
>>  QEOS MOU as a somewhat elliptical way of saying, [SU EI] hO KURIOS 
>> MOU
>>  KAI hO QEOS MOU, in which case we would expect the nominative rather
>>  than the vocative case.  (A parallel confession, in the form of a
>>  complete sentence, is found, of course, in Matt. 16:16 -- SU EI hO
>>  CRISTOS, hO HUIOS TOU QEOU TOU ZWNTOS.)
>
> I think you are probably right to understand the equative verb EI here,
> and I think your parallel of Matt 16.16 is a good one. I would just 
> like
> to make two comments about the vocative:
>
> (1) If one argues that the words hO KURIOS MOU KAI hO QEOS MOU cannot 
> be
> addressed to Jesus because the nouns are not in the vocative case, the
> same argument would apply to the contention that they are addressed to
> the Father, for in either case (if one concludes direct address is in
> view and that the vocative is required in direct address) the 
> nominative
> rather than the vocative would preclude the conclusion. On the other
> hand, if Ken's solution is adopted (which I think is probable), there 
> is
> no reason to suppose the words are not addressed to Jesus.
>
> (2) There are many, many cases of the nominative case being used in
> direct address in the GNT, and it is clear that it is equivalent (at
> least syntactically) to the vocative in such cases. This can be seen,
> e.g., in the parallel passages Matt 27.46/Mark15.34, where Matthew has
> QEE MOU QEE MOU (vocative) and Mark has hO QEOS MOU hO QEOS MOU
> (nominative). Both clearly express direct address.

When I said there were "many, many cases" of the nominative for the 
vocative in the GNT I was actually *understating* the situation. 
According to Wallace in GGBB, "There are almost 600 instances of nom. 
for voc. in the NT--about twice as many as there are true vocatives."
============

Steven Lo Vullo
Madison, WI




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