[B-Greek] 1 Thess 4:15 hHMEIS + substantive ptcs.

Polycarp66 at aol.com Polycarp66 at aol.com
Tue Jan 6 16:37:23 EST 2004


In a message dated 1/6/2004 4:01:44 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
mrt at hisurfer.net writes:
Hi Moon,
This isn't the only time where there is confusion as to what in fact is in
view when Paul et al. uses the first person pl. pronoun "we".  Sometimes it
is used for himself and fellow apostles, or the believing
community/audience, or even himself alone!

For instance, beginning with 1 Thess 4:13 he used "we" in different sense
than the "we" in the very next verse.  And he does the exact same thing in
this verse, employing the first sense of the pronoun with a completely
different nuance from the second and third (if one counts FQASWMEN) instance
of "we."

In one sense Paul is contrasting hOI ZWNTES with TOUS KOIMHQENTAS ie. those
who are alive vs. dead.  Looking at what Paul tags hHMEIS on to hOI ZWNTES,
whereby he limits the referent re. those who are living, ie. WE who are
living.  To which is added hOI PERILEIPOMENOI ie. we who are alive and
REMAIN, which restricts the sense even more.  To which is added EIS THN
PAROUSIAN TOU KURIOU further confining the sense to mean - we who are alive
and remain UNTIL the coming of the Lord.
Thus there are many qualifiers added to hOI ZWNTES and every qualifier
limits who Paul is referring to.
______

This is frequently the case, but here I tend to think that hOI ZWNTES hOI 
PERILEIPOMENOI form one concept.  As a matter of fact, were it to be hOI ZWNTES 
KAI hOI PERILEIPOMENOI I would think there would be a use of hendiadys so that 
only one thing is in view.

gfsomsel



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