[B-Greek] Vocative hO QEOS

Albert Pietersma albert.pietersma at sympatico.ca
Fri Aug 20 21:25:23 EDT 2004


Dear Philip,
I am not aware that the subject you raise has been discussed on this 
list before,  nor for that matter is there an easy answer that I know 
of.  That QEOS should be used instead of QEE is to be expected, seeing 
that the Classical vocative of QEOS is QEOS. The same pattern occurs as 
well with many other nouns in -OS.  QEE is only occasionally 
encountered in the Septuagint corpus and a 'late' form.

What calls for an explanation, however,  is that hO QEOS should appear 
as vocative in place of QEOS.  At first blush one might surmise that 
since Hebrew articulates the vocative, the article might be explained 
as a Hebraism. That doesn't wash, however, since in the case of 'God' , 
Hebrew normally does NOT use an article with the vocative.  Moreover, 
suffixed forms ('God of me' > 'my God') would not in any case show an 
article. Yet the Greek in such cases regularly shows hO QEOS MOU etc.

In a phrase such as KURIE hO QEOS MOY, one might explain hO QEOS MOY as 
a nominative in apposition, rather than as a true vocative.  However, 
that still leaves occurrences of hO QEOS MOY etc. and hO QEOS  in 
contexts where it  functions as vocative. Hence the problem remains.

If one looks at QEOS from a broader  perspective, one observes that in 
standard Greek usage QEOS is a common noun rather than a proper noun, 
comparable to English 'god' in distinction from 'God'.  That then means 
that if one wants to refer to a specific deity, an article is required. 
As a result,  hO QEOS is standard throughout the Septuagint corpus in 
reference to 'God'. To be sure, there are exceptions but many of these 
can be explained as predicatives or generic uses.

My hunch is that the vocative of QEOS with an article can best be 
understood from the perspective that 'God' in biblical literature is hO 
QEOS (THE god).  And that regularly includes the vocative, where the 
article is an oddity.

Should anyone know of an exhaustive study of the subject, I'd 
appreciate knowing about it.

Al


On Aug 20, 2004, at 6:31 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?
>
> It occurs to me that I know of just one Byzantine hymn that addresses 
> God as
> QEE (i.e. the last hymn in the Paraclisis service which we're singing 
> this
> week.) There are probably more, but in liturgical Greek God is still 
> usually
> addresed as hO QEOS. Even when QEOS accompanies another noun which *is*
> vocative it sometimes stays nominative - e.g. XRISTE hO QEOS (O Christ 
> God).
>
> 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".)
>
> I expect this has already been discused here in detail; maybe someone 
> can
> point me to the right section of the archives and I can read what's 
> already
> been said.
>
> Silouan Thompson
> Walla Walla, Washington USA
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ---
> B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
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>
—
Albert Pietersma
Professor of Septuagint and Hellenistic Greek
Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations
University of Toronto
Home: 21 Cross Street,
Weston ON Canada M9N 2B8
Email: albert.pietersma at sympatico.ca
Homepage: http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~pietersm




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