[B-Greek] Eph 2:8; Question about comment from Abraham Kuyper

Harold R. Holmyard III hholmyard at ont.com
Fri May 14 13:07:51 EDT 2004


Dear Doug,

>Does the following hold any water from Abraham 
>Kuyper, "The Work of the Holy Spirit" pg. 
>407-414?
>
>http://kuyper.org/kuyper/whs/vol2_c7.html
>
>First, that the construction of a neuter pronoun 
>with a feminine noun as its antecedent is not a 
>mistake, but excellent Greek.
>
>Second, that the Church had reasons why until 
>now she made the words ?and that not of 
>yourselves? refer to faith.
>
>In regard to the first point, we refer not to a 
>Hellenistic exception, but to the ordinary rule, 
>which is found in every good Greek syntax, and 
>which every exegete ought to know.
>
>A rule which, among others, was formulated by 
>Kühner, in his ?Ausführliche Grammatik der 
>Griech. Sprache,? vol. ii., I, p. 54 (Han., 
>1870), and which is as follows: ?Besonders 
>häufig steht das Neutrum eines demonstrativen 
>Pronomens in Beziehung auf ein männliches oder 
>weibliehes Substantiv, indem der Begrif 
>desselben ganz allgemein als blosses Ding oder 
>Wesen, oder auch als ein ganzer Gedanke 
>aufgefasst wird.? Which is in English: A neutral 
>demonstrative pronoun is frequently used to 
>refer to a preceding masculine or feminine noun, 
>when the meaning expressed by this word is taken 
>in a general sense, etc.
>
>...But it is evident that these citations upset 
>all the quasi-learning of this defective 
>scholarship; and that the words, ?And that not 
>of yourselves, it is the gift of God,? just with 
>the neutral pronoun, in purest Greek, can refer 
>to faith; hence that all this fuss about the 
>difference of gender, not only is without any 
>foundation, but also leaves a very poor 
>impression regarding the scholarship of the men 
>who raised the objection.
>
>Moreover, we must also show not only that the 
>ancient rendering of Ephes. 2: 8 may be correct, 
>but also that it can not be anything else but 
>correct.

HH: My first impression is that it does not hold 
water. The way that TOUTO follows two words after 
PISTEWS, the intervening word being KAI, suggests 
to me that TOUTO clearly refers to something 
distinct from PISTEWS. A normal interpretation 
would be that it refers back to the entirety of 
being saved by grace through faith. TOUTO then is 
used instead of repeating the whole clause.

				Yours,
				Harold Holmyard




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