[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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