[B-Greek] Heb 7,24

Iver Larsen iver_larsen at sil.org
Thu May 6 08:04:12 EDT 2004


Just a couple of brief comments below

>  From Daniel B. Wallace. (1999; 2002). Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics
>
>  >>>>>The adjective may be either attributive or predicate in relation to
> the noun. That is, it may either modify the noun or assert
> something about
> it. Except for the use of pronominal adjectives with nouns , when the
> article is present, it is usually easy to discern the relationship.
>
>
>  >> The first attributive position is article-adjective-noun . In this
> construction the adjective receives greater emphasis than the
> substantive.

This is an oversimplification. In the GNT it would apply to Mark but not to
Matthew and doubtful for the others. The reason is that this is the common,
unmarked order in Matthew.

>  >>The second attributive position is
> article-noun-article-adjective . .....
> In the second attributive position both  substantive
> and adjective receive emphasis and the adjective is added as a sort of
> climax in apposition with a separate article.

This seems rather self contradictory. How can BOTH the substantive and
adjective receive emphasis? And if the final position indicates climax
(which I don't agree with), would that not entail emphasis?

In the case of Mark, this order is the unmarked order and nothing can be
concluded about relative emphasis in Mark. For other writers, it is doubtful
that the order implies emphasis, and in any case it would have to be
corroborated by usage by the same author as well as context.

The situation with anarthrous noun phases is different, and here the order
does indicate relative prominence. The unmarked order in this case is
noun-adjective, so when the order is adjective-noun, there is relative
emphasis on the adjective.

Iver Larsen




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