[B-Greek] 1 Timothy 1:2 salutation

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Jun 15 07:00:43 EDT 2006


On Jun 14, 2006, at 9:27 PM, frjsilver at optonline.net wrote:

> Dear Friends --
>
> There is no implied verb here.
>
> We can think of this salutation almost as the opening lines of a  
> memorandum, the 'from', 'to', and 'subject' being expressed by the  
> grammatically declined names of the author and recipient, ktl.
>
> This is a very common epistolary style, and there is no theological  
> content in this format, other than St Paul's descriptions of  
> himself and in relation to St Timothy.

I would agree that (a) this is common epistolary style; (b) there is  
no theological content here. But I would certainly disagree with the  
notion that there is no implicit verb here.

Text: TIMOQEWi GNHSIWi TEKNWi EN PISTEI, CARIS ELEOS EIRHNH APO QEOU  
PATROS KAI CRISTOU IHSOU TOU KURIOU hHMWN.

I would suggest that the implicit verb is one or another of the more- 
or-less synonymous 3rd-person imperatives: ESTW, GINESQW, GENHQHTW.  
The standard salutation regularly involves a command or wish for the  
well-being of the recipient(s) of the letter; the NT variant of this  
is quite commonly a wish that the recipient receive blessing of  
grace, peace, love, etc. from God and from Christ or from God through  
Christ.


> ---- Original Message -----
> From: Norman Goos
> Date: Wednesday, June 14, 2006 5:31 pm
> Subject: [B-Greek] 1 Timothy 1-2To: Biblical Greek
>
>> I'm looking at the salutation and finding little discussion in the
>> commentaries I own about the implied verb (e.g. Knight).
>> PAULOS.(impliedverb)..TIMOQEWi (IDO).  The only article I can
>> locate is in Calvin
>> Theological Journal (1967) by Van Elderen but won't get a chance
>> to access
>> that for a week or so.  What should I expect as the range of  
>> suggested
>> implied verbs in Pauline salutations and why are they suggested?
>> Thanks.

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





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