[B-Greek] Vocative hO QEOS
Steven Lo Vullo
slovullo at mac.com
Fri Aug 20 21:17:08 EDT 2004
On Aug 20, 2004, at 5:31 PM, Philip Silouan Thompson wrote:
> While the subject of that hO QEOS MOU passage is raised, I'm curious
> about
> why the Psalmist often addresses God as hO QEOS rather than as QEE -
> e.g. in
> Psalm 50, ELEHSON ME hO QEOS KATA TO MEGA ELEOS SOU... I'm not so
> familiar
> with the LXX/OG Old Testament text outside the Psalms; Does QEE occur
> more
> often in other parts of the LXX/OG?
Philip, if I'm not mistaken, hO QEOS is used exclusively in the Psalms
in direct address to God. I think it was Harold Holmyard who commented
on this in the most recent thread on Heb 1.8. As for QEE, I just did a
search in Accordance for QEOS in the singular vocative and received
only 7 hits (2 Sam 7.25; 3 Mac 6.2; 4 Mac 6.27; Ode 14.12; Wis 9.1; Sir
23.4; Ezek 4.14). With so few hits, I'm questioning the search. If this
is wrong, I hope someone will correct it.
> Are there other names or titles in Greek that are treated the same
> way? Or
> is the nominative-as-vocative uniquely used in addressing God? (Maybe
> something like the way some folks call everybody "you" except God who
> is
> "Thou".)
No, this is not unique in the address of God. According to BDF, "Even
where the nominative is still formally distinguished from the vocative,
there is still a tendency for the nominative to usurp the place of the
vocative (a tendency observable already in Homer)." Wallace says, "The
reason the nominative came to be used for the vocative was due to
formal overlap. There is no distinction in form in the plural or neuter
singular, as well as in some forms of the masculine and feminine
singular." He also points out, "The nom. for voc. is encroaching on the
voc. so much that there are twice as many of these as there are vocs.
in the NT. (Since the voc. and nom. are identical in the plural, we are
counting all such forms as nominatives. This must of course be the case
in the several instances that are articular, for the voc. does not take
an article.)"
============
Steven Lo Vullo
Madison, WI
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