[B-Greek] "Forever" and "to be" (was "Re: Hebrews 1:8")
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Jul 1 11:28:02 EDT 2004
At 3:40 PM +0100 6/30/04, robert newman wrote:
>I have two questions.
>
>1) Buduhn in his book Truth in Translation has a chapter on this verse.
>He gives some powerful arguments, is this one sound?
>
>He writes "Furthermore, there is no other example in the Bible where the
>expression "Forever" stands alone as a predicate phrase with the verb
>"to be" as it would if the sentence were read "Your throne is forever."
>"Forever" always functions as a phrase complementing either an action
>verb, or a predicate noun or pronoun."
>
>Is there really no other example in the Bible? And what about other
>literature?
Here's one left-over question regarding the text under discussion yesterday
that I thought might be worth following up on, the more so as it is
fundamentally a question of Biblical Greek usage rather than of particular
theological relevance.
The assertion cited above gives the impression that BeDuhn is unaware of
the existential function of the verb EINAI in Greek and assumes that all
instances of the verb are copulative; it's hard to believe that any serious
student/scholar of Greek would be ignorant of this distinction and of the
usage of EINAI as an existential verb, and BeDuhn may conceivably have
taught Greek at Northern Arizona University (although I can find no
indication of that in his CV at
http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/%7Ejdb8/jason-cv1.htm); I wonder too whether he is
familiar with the Greek text of Parmenides, whose argument as a whole
depends upon the extential sense of EIMI. BDAG gives the existential sense
as #1 under EIMI and lists other predicate usages of EIMI under
##3a,4,5,6,7.
I suppose that before responding to this question I ought to read the
chapter in question in Jason DeBuhn's book, but I have done a fairly quick
search of the most common NT Greek phrase conveyed as "forever"--EIS TON
AIWNA/EIS TOUS AIWNAS and it doesn't seem to me that the cited statement is
valid at all.
I'll note first of all that the above-cited statement by BeDuhn is
perfectly valid with regard to usage of the adverb AEI in the GNT, but in
fact the adverb AEI appears only 7x in the GNT (Acts 7:51, 2Cor. 4:11,
6:10, Titus 1:12, Heb. 3:10, 1Pet. 3:15, 2Pet. 1:12); on the other hand
there are 54 instances of EIS + TON/TOUS AIWNA/AIWNAS (Matt. 12:32;
13:22,39-40,49; 21:19; 24:3; 28:20; Mark 3:29; 4:19; 10:30; 11:14; Luke
1:33,55,70; 16:8; 18:30; 20:34-35; John 4:14; 6:51,58; 8:35,51-52; 9:32;
10:28; 11:26; 12:34; 13:8; 14:16; Acts 3:21; 15:18; Rom. 1:25; 9:5; 11:36;
12:2; 16:27; 1Cor. 1:20; 2:6-8; 3:18; 8:13; 10:11; 2Cor. 4:4; 9:9; 11:31;
Gal. 1:4-5; Eph. 1:21; 2:2,7; 3:9,11,21; Phil. 4:20; Col. 1:26; 1Tim. 1:17;
6:17; 2Tim. 4:10,18; Titus 2:12; Heb. 1:2,8; 5:6; 6:5,20; 7:17,21,24,28;
9:26; 11:3; 13:8,21; 1Pet. 1:25; 4:11; 5:11; 2Pet. 3:18; 1John 2:17; 2John
1:2; Jude 1:13,25; Rev. 1:6,18; 4:9-10; 5:13; 7:12; 10:6; 11:15; 14:11;
15:7; 19:3; 20:10; 22:5) Of these I shall only deal with those instances
that seem to me to be relevant to BeDuhn's assertion and particularly it's
relevance to Heb 1:8).
The text in question:
Heb. 1:8 PROS DE TON hUION: hO QRONOS SOU hO QEOS EIS TON AIWNA TOU AIWNOS.
Forever" with a predicate noun and implicit verb "to be
Heb. 5:6 and 7:17 (citation of Ps 110:4) SU hIEREUS EIS TON AIWNA KATA THN
TAXIN MELCISEDEK
Heb. 13:8 IHSOUS CRISTOS ECQES KAI SHMERON hO AUTOS KAI EIS TOUS AIWNAS
If I have rightly understand what BeDuhn is claiming this is the only
standard usage of the phrase translated "forever" in the Bible or GNT.
Used with predicate accusative:
Heb. 7:28 ... hO LOGOS DE THS ORKWMOSIAS THS META TON NOMON (KAQISTHSIN)
hUION EIS TON AIWNA TETELESMENON. I suppose this is equivalent to the
expressions above with predicate word and "to be": TELEIOS ESTAI EIS TON
AIWNA -- and I wouldn't argue against that view.
A couple other expressions may perhaps be categorized as "action verb(s)
complemented by the phase meaning "forever." I'd be somewhat hesitant about
calling these "action verbs" inasmuch as they are intransitives:
ANABAINEIN, BASILEUIN, the passive BASANIZESQAI:
Intransitive: "rise/ascend"-I guess this would be called an "action verb":
(2x) Rev. 14:11, 19:3 hO KAPNOS ... EIS AIWNAS AIWNWN ANABAINEI
Intransitive: "reign"-I suppose it could be argued that these are the
equivalent of predicate noun with verb "be", e.g. BASILEUS ESTAI EIS TON
AIWNA or BASILEIS ESONTAI EIS TON AIWNA
Luke 1:33 BASILEUSEI ... EIS TOUS AIWNAS
Rev. 22:5 KAI BASILEUSOUSIN EIS TUS AIWNAS TWN AIWNWN (said of the redeemed)
Intransitive/passive: "they will undergo torture continuously ..."-I guess
this might be called an "action verb":
Rev. 20:10 KAI BASANISQHSONTAI hHMERAS KAI NUKTOS EIS TOUS AIWNAS TWN AIWNWN \
In my opinion, the verbs ZHN and MENEIN are practically synonymous with
EINAI in its existential sense; there are several instances of these verbs
in the GNT:
ZHN:
John 6:51 EAN TIS FAGHi EK TOUTOU TOU ARTOU ZHSEI EIS TON AIWNA
Rev. 1:18 KAI hO ZWN, KAI EGENOMHN NEKROS KAI IDOU ZWN EIMI EIS TOUS AIWNAS
TWN AIWNWN Although is might be argued that ZWN is predicate word here, I'd
prefer to say that ZWN EIMI is simply periphrastic for ZW.
Rev. 4:9, 4:10, 10:6 ... TWi ZWNTI EIS TOUS AIWNAS TWN AIWNWN
Rev. 15:7 TOU QEOU TOU ZWNTOS EIS TOUS AIWNAAS TWN AIWNWN
MENEIN:
John 8:35 (2x MENEI EIS TON AIWNA)
John 12:34 hO CRISTOS MENEI EIS TON AIWNA
2Cor. 9:9 hH DIKAIOSUNH AUTOU MENEI EIS TON AIWNA
Heb. 7:24 DIA TO MENEIN AUTON EIS TON AIWNA ...
1Pet. 1:25 TO DE hRHMA KURIOU MENEI EIS TON AIWNA
1John 2:17 hO DE POIWN TO QELHMA TOU QEOU MENEI EIS TON AIWNA
Existential EINAI; several of these are found in doxologies, and if it is
argued that EINAI doesn't appear in these, it is neverthless clearly
implied, and in one instance (1 Peter 4:11 it is explicit); it's worth
noting, moreover, that an existential ESTI is understood to be implicit in
the conventional understanding of our text in question, Heb 1:8 with hO
QEOS understood as vocative rather than as predicate noun--even though ESTI
isn't expressed (the ellipsis is more common than not):
Doxological formulae:
Gal. 1:5, Heb 13;231 hWi hH DOXA EIS TOUS AIWNAS TWN AIWNWN
Eph. 3:21 AUTWi hH DOXA ... EIS PASAS TAS GENEAS TU AIWNOS TWN AIWNWN
Phil. 4:20 TWi DE QEWi KAI PATRI hHMWN hH DOXA EIS TOUS AIWNAS TWN AIWNWN
1Tim. 1:17 TWi DE BASILEI TWN AIWNWN, AFQARTWi AORATWi MONWi QEWi, TIMH KAI
DOXA EIS TOUS AIWNAS AIWNWN
1Pet. 4:11 ... DIA IHSOU CRISTOU, hWi ESTIN hH DOXA KAI TO KRATOS EIS TOUS
AIWNAS TWN AIWNWN
1Pet. 5:11 AUTWi TO KRATOS EIS TOUS AIWNAS
Rev. 5:13 ... TWi KAQHMENWi EPI TWi QRONWi KAI TWi ARNIWi hH EULOGIA KAI hH
TIMH KAI hH DOXA KAI TO KRATOS EIS TOUS AIWNAAS TWN AIWNWN
Finally, there are two clear instances of existential EINAI used with EIS
TON AIWNA:
John 14:16 hINA MEQ' hUMWN EIS TON AIWNA Hi ... intransitive: "be" in
existential sense, nor is that altered by the presence of the adverbial
phrase MEQ' hUMWN:
2John 1:2 DIA THN ALHQEIAN THN MENOUSAN EN hHMIN KAI MEQ' hHMWN ESTAI EIS
TON AIWNA Although the syntax of the clause MEQ' hHMWN ESTAI EIS TON AIWNA
is highly irregular, the meaning is not in question; in fact here it is
clear that MENEIN is understood to be equivalent to EINAI .
My conclusion: BeDuhn's assertion, if it has been accurately cited and in
sufficient context in Robert Newman's message of 3:40 PM +0100 6/30/04,
simply will not stand as an objection to the conventional translations of
Heb 1:8, wherein hO QEOS is understood to be functionally equivalent to a
vocative expression and the subject hO QRONOS SOU is construed with an
implicit existential ESTI qualified by the adverbial expression EIS TON
AIWNA: "Your throne, O God, is forever." I concur, on the other hand, with
Rolf Furuli's assertion that it is grammatically possible to understand hO
QEOS as predicate noun in this text and that one's preference will depend
upon one's theological orientation, while I would nevertheless insist that
BeDuhn's claim that the conventional reading of the text is grammatically
invalid just won't hold water.
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
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