[B-Greek] 3rd class conditional sentences

Donald R. Vance, Ph.D. donaldrvance at mac.com
Mon Jan 9 14:24:01 EST 2006


This raises a question that interests me. Do we have examples in  
Greek of conditionals that specify lexically ideas such as "if and  
only if," "if X then Y must," etc?
Donald R. Vance, Ph.D.
Professor of Biblical Languages and Literature
Oral Roberts University
dvance at oru.edu
donaldrvance at mac.com


On Jan 9, 2006, at 12:33 PM, Carl W. Conrad wrote:

>
> On Jan 9, 2006, at 1:01 PM, Robb Wallace wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>>
>>
>> Is there any way to determine the certainty level (from likely to
>> certain)
>> of the apodosis in a 3rd class conditional sentence beyond simply
>> looking at
>> the context? I’ve been studying 1 John and in verses like 1 Jn 1:9
>> it seems
>> like the apodosis would have to be certain, i.e. He will with
>> certainty
>> forgive and cleanse when we confess our sins. Anything less than
>> certainty
>> would weaken the promise where God may not forgive and cleanse. But
>> this is
>> a 3rd class where the verbs in the apodosis are subjunctive, which
>> to my
>> understanding would indicate a future that probably will happen but
>> is not
>> certain. Wouldn’t it have been better Greek to have the verbs in the
>> apodosis future indicative to show certainty?
>
> In fact the verbs belonging to the condition itself are indicative:
>
> Text: 1 John 1:9 EAN hOMOLOGWMEN TAS hAMARTIAS hHMWN, PISTOS ESTIN
> KAI DIKAIOS, hINA AFHi hHMIN TAS hAMARTIAS KAI KAQARISHi hHMAS APO
> PASHS ADIKIAS.
>
> You should note that the verbs AFHi and KAQARISHi fall within a hINA
> clause which is epexegetic (functioning much as an infinitive) to the
> adjectives PISTOS and DIKAIOS. One could, I suppose, argue that the
> hINA clause is a result clause: the forgiving and cleansing are
> consequences of his faithfulness and righteousness.
>
> I do think that this statement is intended by its author to give
> assurance about God's response to confession and repentance, but I
> don't think I'd try to entangle the certainty of a promise with the
> logical implications of what is a generalizing conditional clause,
> even if you want to read it as "If X, then (always) 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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