[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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