[B-Greek] Predicate Nominative in 1 John 2:7

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at ioa.com
Wed Oct 26 09:38:09 EDT 2005


On Oct 26, 2005, at 9:06 AM, Harold R. Holmyard III wrote:

> Dear Charles,
>
>
>> I was reading 1 John 2:7 last night and I came across this clause:
>> hH ENTOLH hH PALAIA ESTIN hO LOGOS.  When I translated it, I made hO
>> LOGOS the subject but in reviewing later, I noticed that everyone
>> else has hH ENTOLH hH PALAIA as the subject.  Unfortunely for me no
>> one gave any explanation as to why they made the decision that they
>> did.  Can anyone educate me more clearly on this matter?
>>
>
> HH: It seems to me to be the context. The subject before this
> sentence is the "the old commandment." The subject of the next verse
> (v. 8) is "a new commandment." The topic is the commandment, and "the
> word which you heard" seems to be the predication made about it.

I don't really disagree with what Harold has said, but I'd call  
attention to a couple general points:
(1) Normally when two substantives are linked by an explicit (or an  
implicit) copula (ESTIN/EISIN) the subject is the substantive with  
the article, regardless of which substantive comes first (cf. John  
1:1c KAI QEOS HN hO LOGOS, where the subject is hO LOGOS rather than  
QEOS).
(2) When both substantives have the article, it doesn't really matter  
which of the two you deem to be the subject and which the predicate  
nominative. Therefore there is no difference at all between the  
alternative formulations (a) "The message that you heard is the old  
commandment" or (b) "The old command is the message that you heard."  
That is to say, in this formulation we simply have an equation as in  
the mathematical formula, X = Y.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/




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