[B-Greek] 2 Cor 1:12, EN hAPLOTHTI KAI EILIKRINEIAi TOU QEOU

Paul Toseland toseland at blueyonder.co.uk
Sat Aug 11 14:57:57 EDT 2007


Carl,

Thank you, your argument from Paul's piety does make very good sense. 
Indeed, twice in the Corinthian correspondence he quotes Jer 9:23, hO 
KAUCWMENOS EN KURIWi KAUCASQW (1 Cor 1:31; 2 Cor 10:17). If I have 
understood you rightly, you are saying also that if Paul had wished to 
accent the semantic distinction between hAPLOTHS and EILIKRINEIA, and to 
qualify only the latter with TOU QEOU, he would have written EN 
hAPLOTHTI KAI THi EILIKRINEIAi TOU QEOU. But I wonder why he did not 
eliminate any possible ambiguity by writing EN THi hAPLOTHTI KAI 
EILIKRINEIAi TOU QEOU? Is there some compelling grammatical or discourse 
reason for not including the article?

Many thanks,
Paul

Carl W. Conrad wrote:
>
> On Aug 10, 2007, at 2:18 PM, Paul Toseland wrote:
>
>> hH GAR KAUCHSIS hHMWN hAUTH ESTIN, TO MARTURION TOU SUNEIDHSEWS hHMWN,
>> hOTI EN hAPLOTHTI KAI EILIKRINEIAi TOU QEOU, KAI OUK EN SOFIAi SARKIKHi
>> ALL' EN CARITI QEOU, ANESTRAFHMEN EN KOSMWi, PERISSOTERWS DE PROS hUMAS.
>>
>> In the phrase EN hAPLOTHTI KAI EILIKRINEIAi TOU QEOU, does TOU QEOU
>> qualify EILIKRINEIAi alone, or hAPLOTHTI KAI EILIKRINEIAi?
>
> I would say that it construes with both, since there is no article; 
> but as the text stands, the more significant question is how the 
> genitive TOU QEOU is related to either or -- more likely -- both 
> nouns. I am inclined to think that NET has it right, "with pure 
> motives and sincerity which are from God"; hAPLOTHS is want of 
> duplicity rather than "simplicity" in the more common sense of the 
> English word. These must be God-given qualities of character as 
> opposed to being self-derived. I would even surmise that EN CARITI 
> QEOU clarifies the phrase EN hAPLOTHTI KAI EILIKRINEIAi TOU QEOU.
>
> 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/
>
>
>


-- 
Dr Paul Toseland
Bristol, England
Weakamongtheweak.org/




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