[B-Greek] 1ti 3.2 adjectives of the adjectives

Elizabeth Kline kline_dekooning at earthlink.net
Thu Oct 19 13:35:51 EDT 2006


On Oct 19, 2006, at 9:00 AM, Thomas C. Black wrote:

> Both the WBC and the ICC commentaries make cursory statements  
> regarding the
> series of adjectives in 1 Tim 3:2ff to the effect that ANEPILHMPTON  
> is a
> head term to which all of the other accusative adjectives are  
> explanations.
>
> My question is: is it the position of the infinitive EINAI isolating
> ANEPILHMPTON which causes this interpretation?  And if not, why not  
> consider
> each of these terms as equal and distinct complements to the  
> infinitive?
> To save you time, the text in question is:
> 	DEI OUN TON EPISKOPON ANEPILHMPTON EINAI, MIAS GUNAIKOS ANDRA,
> NHFALION SWFRONA KOSMION ... ktl


1TIM. 3:1 PISTOS hO LOGOS. EI TIS EPISKOPHS OREGETAI, KALOU ERGOU  
EPIQUMEI.  2 DEI OUN TON EPISKOPON ANEPILHMPTON EINAI, MIAS GUNAIKOS  
ANDRA, NHFALION SWFRONA KOSMION FILOXENON DIDAKTIKON,  3 MH PAROINON  
MH PLHKTHN, ALLA EPIEIKH AMACON AFILARGURON,  4 TOU IDIOU OIKOU KALWS  
PROISTAMENON, TEKNA ECONTA EN hUPOTAGHi, META PASHS SEMNOTHTOS  5 (EI  
DE TIS TOU IDIOU OIKOU PROSTHNAI OUK OIDEN, PWS EKKLHSIAS QEOU  
EPIMELHSETAI;),  6 MH NEOFUTON, hINA MH TUFWQEIS EIS KRIMA EMPESHi  
TOU DIABOLOU.  7 DEI DE KAI MARTURIAN KALHN ECEIN APO TWN EXWQEN,  
hINA MH EIS ONEIDISMON EMPESHi KAI PAGIDA TOU DIABOLOU.

The word order helps to isolate DEI OUN TON EPISKOPON ANEPILHMPTON  
EINAI as a clause but I don't think the word order is required to  
understand this as a summary statement covering the entire list of  
detailed specifications that follows. The solution is a combination  
of rhetoric, syntax and semantic structure. Semantically,  
ANEPILHMPTON is a high order category which includes all the detailed  
specifications. Rhetorically, general statements are made first  
followed by detailed exposition. Syntactically, placing the verb  
EINAI in clause final position makes it easy to identify the clause  
boundary.

Another issue here is economy of expression (rhetoric?). It would be  
intolerably tedious to state each of the detailed requirements in a  
full clause of the form: DEI OUN TON EPISKOPON {X} EINAI.

It is possible to read DEI OUN TON EPISKOPON ANEPILHMPTON EINAI ...  
as a big long sentence, but I am not sure that is necessary. The  
punctuation in NA27 would support that reading.

Elizabeth Kline







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