[B-Greek] Titus 2:11

Iver Larsen iver_larsen at sil.org
Thu Aug 16 13:10:44 EDT 2007


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu>
>>>
>>>> Titus 2:11:  EPEFANH GAR H XARIS TOU QEOU SWTHRIOS PASIN ANQRWPOIS.
<snip>
>> Another question is the sense of the adjective. BAGD notes that this
>> adjective is normally used substantively in the GNT (TO SWTHRION),  in 
>> fact
>> four out of five occurrence, with Tit 2:11 the only adjectival one.  They
>> give the sense of the substantive as "a means of deliverance". So  why 
>> not
>> give the same sense to the adjectival usage?
>> The more common word for "deliverance/salvation" is SWTHRIA (46  times in 
>> the
>> GNT). This word appears to refer to actual experience of salvation. In
>> contrast, SWTHRIOS in all its occurences in the GNT seems to fit  the 
>> sense
>> of "means of salvation". It is derived from the noun SWTHR as  George 
>> pointed
>> out, and the SWTHR is the one who gives SWTHRIA, so he is SWTHRIOS,  the 
>> way
>> to or means of salvation.
>>
>> With this background a free translation that IMO would be more  accurate 
>> and
>> faithful to the intended sense could be: "For the grace of God has  been
>> revealed as a means of salvation for all people".
>
>... I'd say that EPEFANH is an  intransitive aorist middle-passive of 
>EPIFAINOMAI, not a passive of  EPIFAINW,

Can you back up this claim with data or is it just a hunch based on your 
fondness for middle-passive?

Looking briefly at (EPI)FAINW in the LXX, it appears that there the active 
form often does have a causative sense - "make shine". The middle is then 
the intransitive "shine, appear".
However, in the GNT, there is only one clear example of a morphologically 
middle form (1Pe 4:18 - FANEITAI), and that is in a quote from the LXX. 
Otherwise, the active form is used in the intransitive sense of "shine".
BAGD only lists active and passive forms of EPIFAINW and they specifically 
list Tit 2:11 as passive.
The active forms are used in the more literal sense of shining with subjects 
like sun, moon, stars, light from a lamp. The morphologically passive forms 
are used in a non-literal sense and is often best translated by "be seen 
by..." Of course, the present forms are morphologically ambiguous.

Let me take a brief example from Mark 14:64:
TI hUMIN FAINETAI - how does it appear to you/how is it seen by you
There is a skewing of the syntax and semantics in this kind of verb. The 
grammatical subject is the semantic patient, that which is seen, whereas the 
grammatical dative is the experiencer, the person who sees it. The passive 
form commonly corresponds to the situation where the semantic patient is 
encoded as grammatical subject in nominative.

>...although I am aware that some take seriously the notion of  a "divine 
>passive."

I don't take that seriously, because I think it is an unhelpful confusion of 
syntax and pragmatics.

> At the same time I'd quite agree with taking  SWTHRIOS PASIN ANQRWPOIS to 
> mean "as a means of salvation for all  people."
>
> I note that NET has: "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing 
> salvation to all people."

Yes, but that misses the aspect of means. In the context of the NT, the 
grace of God does not bring actual salvation to all people, only the means 
of salvation, so the translation is somewhat misleading.
I am not opposed to "For the grace of God has appeared as a means of 
salvation for all people."

Iver Larsen 




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