[B-Greek] 1 Peter 3:20-21
Iver Larsen
iver at larsen.dk
Sat Mar 11 11:56:56 EST 2006
> Iver Larsen says
> "Since hO is a neuter pronoun I prefer to see it not as referring to the
> immediately preceding word but to the whole preceding sentence..."
> [RR]: Why
> doesn't it refer to the water which is neuter in Greek. How could Peter make it
> any clearer that the antecedent is the water just mentioned?
My point is that the antecedent is not clear. It could gramatically be either the neuter word hUDWR, or it could be the
thing/concept of the previous sentence. The neuter hO can mean "that thing which". Then I was drawing on the context to
suggest that the reference may well be the whole concept rather than just water.
> Again, Iver writes,
> "It can hardly be the water that saves."
>
> [RR:] Are you speaking merely as a grammarian or a theologian?
I was speaking from the viewpoint of grammar and logic in the context of Noah and the ark. I thought it was obvious that
Noah was not saved BY the water but THROUGH it (DI' hUDATOS).
> [RR:] The focus in 1 Pet. 3:20, 21 is upon the water, not upon the ark regardless how significant
> the ark was in the family's safety.
How do you decide what is the focus? I admit that there is some disagreement about how word order indicates focus. If
you believe in sentence final focus, I can see that you might suggest that "water" is in focus. I believe in
left-position relative focus. If we look at the sentence:
KATASKEUAZOMENHS KIBWTOU EIS hHN OLIGOI, TOUT' ESTIN OKTW, YUCAI DIESWQHSAN DI' hUDATOS hO KAI hUMAS ANTITUPON NUN
SWiSEI BAPTISMA
while an ark was being prepared in(to) which a few, that is eight, souls were saved through water, which (thing) is a
type/picture/illustration/example (of that which) now saves you, too, (namely) baptism.
As far as I can see the key word is saved, not water. I consider hUDATOS to be in the least prominent, most
script-predictable position.
The text is complicated both because of awkward grammar and the somewhat unclear adjective ANTITUPOS. It only occurs
twice in the GNT in Heb 9:24 and here. In both cases the meaning seems to be a physical, concrete
picture/image/illustration/foreshadowing of a later spiritual reality.
It seems to me that the topic is primarily salvation and secondarily obedience as the basis for salvation. Behind the
ark is Noah's obedience in spite of ridicule from the disobedient majority. The pysical salvation of Noah and his family
through the water is a picture or foreshadowing of the spiritual salvation through the water of baptism.
Grammatically, I take ANTITUPON to be a predicate to hO, which again IMO goes back to the event of physical salvation by
the ark through the water. The spiritual reality foreshadowed by this picture would then be BAPTISMA. I noticed that the
text does not talk about the water of baptism, but the event of baptism.
> [RR:] Peter is making an analogy between the
> deluge and baptism. That much is clear. Even the anti-sacramentalist, ATR
> says, "Which also (o` kai). Water just mentioned. After a true likeness
> (antitupon). Water in baptism now as an anti-type of Noah's deliverance by
> water" (WP)
It is not that clear. It seems to me that the analogy is "being saved while going through some water."
In your quote, the English word "by" is ambiguous. Water is not the agent for Noah's deliverance, but the circumstance
though which he is delivered/saved. From your quote, it does appear that I indeed disagree with ATR, based on the
grammar and logic rather than theology.
But the text is not a simple one to tackle, and I am not asking you to agree with me. I am just giving my perspective.
Iver Larsen
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