[B-Greek] Titus 2:11

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sat Aug 18 14:18:49 EDT 2007


On Aug 18, 2007, at 1:22 PM, Iver Larsen wrote:

> Dear Father James,
>
> Now I have a question for you (and for Carl).
>
> If we look at the alternative reading which includes the article:
>
> EPEFANH GAR hH CARIS TOU QEOU hH SWTHRIOS PASIN ANQRWPOIS
>
> Would you say that the second article could function as a relative  
> pronoun?

No, not as a relative pronoun, but as an indicator that SWTHRIOS is  
attributive to CARIS.

BUT, I think we generally assert that an attributive adjective  
functions like a relative clause -- and that amounts to the same  
thing that you're saying: that it's equivalent to hH\ SWTHRIO/S ESTIN  
as a relative clause qualifying CARIS.

> I have come across this usage of the article several times in  
> Greek, and it
> doesn't seem to be clearly recognized or described in the grammars.  
> I did
> talk about this way back in a post from Jan 23, 2001, entitled
> predicative/attributive - position and function.
>
> This would suggest the sense:
>
>> 'The grace of God shone forth, (the grace) which (is) salutary for  
>> all
>> human beings.'

But:
(a) the reading you suggest is the reading of TR and MT;
(b) in terms of the traditional grammar with which I am familiar hH  
SWTHRIOS in the text  of TR and MT is in fact an adjective  
attributive (NOT predicative) to hH CARIS;
(c) the hH preceding SWTHRIOS is not in the earliest MSS but rather  
in later MSS.
(d) The KJV version, "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation  
hath appeared to all men," does reflect that reading of the TR;
(e) the eclectic text of NA27/UBS4 reads EPEFANH GAR hH CARIS TOU  
QEOU SWTHRIOS PASIN ANQRWPOIS -- without the article preceding  
SWTHRIOS; in that text, I still say that SWTHRIOS functions  
predicatively with EPEFANH.

> In this case SWTHRIOS is a predicate within its own relative clause  
> that as
> a whole modifies (is attributive to?) the head noun CARIS. (I am  
> familiar
> with a language - unrelated to Greek - which does not have attributive
> adjectives at all, but all adjectives are predicates in relative  
> clauses, so
> that one would always say "the boy who (is) big", and never "the  
> big boy".
> The verb "to be" is implied, but never stated in this construction.)
>
> With this analysis the adjective functions as a predicate whether  
> the second
> article is present or not, but the text with the article  
> functioning as a
> relative marker makes the most sense to me.

I'm willing to be shown (I'm FROM Missouri, although I don't live  
there any more), but I'm not familiar with a relative clause  
consisting of a relative pronoun and a predicate word with ESTIN  
unexpressed.


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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