[B-Greek] Hebrews 13:4

Yancy Smith Y.W.Smith at tcu.edu
Tue Nov 29 11:33:41 EST 2005


Diana,
      Just I was about to send this, Carl's answer came through,  I  
am incomplete agreement with his response. The clause in which TIMIOS  
and AMIANTOS occurs is verbless and it forms the basis of the  
inferential clause (conclusion) introduced by GAR, "for God will  
judge fornicators and adulterers." Since it comes within the context  
of a paranetic paragraph which is marked by 3rd/2nd person  
imperatives, "MENETW" (13:1), MH EPIPLANESQE (v.2), MIMNHiSKESQE (v. 
3), it is best to see the mode of the verbless clause in verse 4 as  
"dependent" on or "carrying over" the imperatives in its context. In  
this case the verb supplied would be the imperative form of "to  
be"--"let _____ be." Another way of looking at it is to see if the  
translation with an indicative mode makes sense, "Marriage is held in  
esteem by all and the bed is undefiled, for this reason God will  
judge fornicators and adulterers" makes less sense and would seem odd  
in its context (i.e. it does not satisfy the criterion of relevance),  
and the Greek reader would know almost automatically that the mode is  
imperatival.

Yancy

Yancy Smith
Y.W.Smith at tcu.edu
Brite Divinity School
Texas Christian University






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