[B-Greek] Transcendent ekeinos referent?

Elizabeth Kline kline_dekooning at earthlink.net
Sat Aug 12 15:43:17 EDT 2006


JOHN 1:18 QEON OUDEIS hEWRAKEN PWPOTE: MONOGENHS QEOS hO WN EIS TON  
KOLPON TOU PATROS EKEINOS EXHGHSATO.


On Aug 12, 2006, at 11:16 AM, Jason Kerrigan wrote:

>  Are there any Biblical examples of a transcendent ekeinos  
> referent? I know Elizabeth
>   mentioned extra-biblical uses, but if there are no biblical  
> examples of this principle
>   then I would probably find myself shunning John 1:18 as a sole  
> example.

I did not make any comment on the referent of EKEINOS, again I agree  
with Harold on this question. The problem under discussion was the  
lack of a direct object for EXHGHSATO. There are several ways this  
might be approached. EXHGHSATO might be absolute, this would be  
rather odd, and would not be my first choice. Much more probable is  
the direct object was so obvious that in this semi-poetic language it  
was left unspecified. I will leave it to someone else to come up with  
NT examples of elided direct objects but I can assure they exist. In  
Attic poetry this sort of thing is very common.

Almost anything can be left out of a Greek clause. The subject of the  
main verb is often left out (zero anaphora), the main verb can be  
left out, the direct object is perhaps the least likely to be omitted  
because unlike Hebrew, Greek does not use a pronominal suffix on the  
verb to indicated the direct object.

If you read moderately difficult Greek texts either within or outside  
of the GNT, you will encounter things being left out. So keep reading.

Elizabeth Kline







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