[B-Greek] Purpose Clause

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Feb 25 05:27:31 EST 2005


At 9:18 AM +0200 2/25/05, Muzi wrote:
>Dear all
>
>I have difficulty with the purpose clause in regard to it's results.
>Before posing my question I'll give views that have confused me. From
>these views I'll then pick the things that confuse me in asking the
>question.
>
>Collin Smith, an associate of Dr James White on White's AOMIN website,
>explains it with an example. The example is "... we have believed in
>Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified ..." (Gal 2:16, NASB). Collin
>says, "Paul, by using the subjunctive, is not intending to communicate
>any kind of uncertainty with regard to justification.  Rather, by using
>the subjunctive in a hina clause, he is proclaiming that our faith in
>Christ has its purpose in our justification, and also has its end result
>in our justification."
>
>However, a footnote in Dr Charlie Bing's Lordship Salvation dissertation
>(Ch 2) quotes Ernest De Witt Burton as saying "There is no certain,
>scarcely a probable, instance in the New Testament of a clause
>introduced by hina denoting actual result conceived of as such." The
>footnote comes with Charlie's discussion of Eph 2:10 (For we are God's
>workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God
>prepared in advance for us to do.)
>
>Corey Keating at http://www.ntgreek.org/ says the following
>
>a) The ‘purpose clause’ (a dependent clause) is used to show the purpose
>or intention of the action of the main verb in the sentence (in the
>independent clause). This construction is meant to show intention, not
>to state whether something actually happens or not.
>
>b) The purpose clause answers the question "Why?" or "For what reason?",
>rather than "What?".
>
>c) The conjunction that precedes the subjunctive verb (usually i{na or
>o{pw") is translated "in order that" or possibly "that".  For the sake
>of clarity, it is probably best translated "in order that".
>
>d) If the subjunctive mood is used in a ‘purpose’ (or in a ‘result’)
>clause, then the action should not be thought of as a possible result,
>but should be viewed as the stated outcome that will happen (or has
>happened) as a result of another stated action.  The use of the
>subjunctive is not to indicate that something ‘may’ or ‘might’ result
>from a given action, but it is stating the ‘purpose of’ or ‘reason for’
>an action.
>
>e) The subjunctive mood in a purpose clause actually functions more like
>a verb in the indicative mood rather than in the optative mood.  It is
>not stating the possibility or probability of an action, but instead
>telling the intention of the primary action.
>
>My Confusion
>
>Collins seems to that the result is realised. Theologically I agree with
>him as far as Gal 2:16 is concerned. However, grammatically I'm still
>confused.
>
>Burton seems to say that the result is not realised.
>
>Keating seems to say that the realisation of result is not important
>(a). I understand (d) as saying that whether or not we see the result we
>should take it as having been fulfilled.
>
>QUESTION
>
>Is the realisation (actuality) of result important or not important?
>Should we take it as having been fulfilled even though we don't see it?

Of course the realization or result is important, but the hINA +
subjunctive clause in NT Koine Greek may be used in ways that do NOT
necessarily indicate PURPOSE; it may indicate RESULT; it may even be used
as a substantive clause.

However the hINA clause in Gal 2:16 is pretty clearly certainly is a
purpose clause. I think that some of your sources referred to above are
bringing theology to bear instead of or even prior to resolving the
questions concerning the Greek construction. I would agree with the Burton
and Keating accounts that you cite, that the hINA clause of PURPOSE,
indicates the INTENTION accounting for the action of the verb on which the
hINA clause depends.
-- 

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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