[B-Greek] "monon" - I Cor. 15:19

Ken Penner ken.penner at acadiau.ca
Tue Mar 27 16:52:26 EDT 2007


Taking MONON as a modifier of "this life" makes translation into English easy, and as Anthony and George pointed out, fits with the context (this life, contrasted with life after death as well). 

But you asked for grammatical possibilities. Grammatically speaking, MONON is acting adverbially, not attributively. See BDAG's entry 2(a). But if Paul meant to say "this life only" he could have said EN THi ZWHi TAUTHi MONHi. Perhaps it would be more helpful if I had added that by modifying the verb, MONON modifies the entire clause. Thus we could translate, "If in this life in Christ we have been hoping--[doing] THIS ALONE--, ...."

For an argument against opting for the easy translation, see C. K. Barrett, A Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians (London: Black, 1968, 2d ed. 1971), 349-350.
(Barrett translates, "in Christ - that and nothing more - then... ").

Ken

Ken M. Penner, Ph.D. (McMaster)
Acadia/Greek&Hebrew
Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic vocabulary memorization software: 
http://purl.org/net/kmpenner/flash


> -----Original Message-----
> From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org 
> [mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Dave
> Sent: March 27, 2007 5:14 PM
> To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] "monon" - I Cor. 15:19
> 
> If MONON "unambiguously" modifies the verb (having hoped), 
> why do most(?) translations have it modifying one of the nouns (life)?
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Dave   :)
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Ken Penner [mailto:ken.penner at acadiau.ca]
> > Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2007 2:57 PM
> > To: Dave; b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> > Subject: RE: [B-Greek] "monon" - I Cor. 15:19
> > 
> > Pace Anthony, MONON does not modify any nominal element, 
> since it does 
> > not agree in gender, number, and case with anything else. It 
> > unambiguously modifies the verb (having hoped).
> > If in this life in Christ we have only hoped ...
> > 
> > Ken
> > 
> > Ken M. Penner, Ph.D.
> > Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies, Acadia Divinity College, 
> > Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada B4P 2R6.
> > (902)585-2213
> > http://purl.org/net/kmpenner/
> > 
> > 
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org 
> > > [mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Dave
> > > Sent: March 27, 2007 4:38 PM
> > > To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> > > Subject: [B-Greek] "monon" - I Cor. 15:19
> > > 
> > > Hello.  I'm new to this list.  Thank you for having me.
> > >  
> > > I have a question about the translation of the first part 
> of I Cor. 
> > > 15:19.
> > > As I understand it, there are four grammatical 
> possibilities as to 
> > > where to place the word "monon" (alone/only) in this clause:
> > >  
> > > 1. "If in this LIFE ONLY we have hoped in Christ...."  
> > (Monon modifies
> > > "life.")
> > > 2. "If in this life we have had ONLY HOPE in Christ...."  
> > > (Monon modifies
> > > "hope.")
> > > 3. "If in this life we have hoped ONLY in CHRIST...."  
> > (Monon modifies
> > > "Christ.")
> > > 4. "If in this life WE ALONE have hoped in Christ...."  
> > > (Monon modifies
> > > "alone.")
> > >  
> > > The translators have precluded options #3 & #4.  My
> > question is this:  
> > > Is the rejection of those two options purely for _contextual_ and 
> > > _theological_ reasons?  Or are there also _grammatical_ 
> reasons to 
> > > preclude options #3 & #4?
> > >  
> > > In other words, if someone were to walk into a room and 
> blurt out, 
> > > without any context, the Greek sentence, "In this life we
> > have hoped
> > > in Christ alone," what would be the grammatically most 
> > > natural/probable meaning of that sentence with no 
> context?  Are all 
> > > four of the possible meanings equally likely from a grammatical 
> > > standpoint?  Or are some of them more grammatically 
> "awkward" than 
> > > others?  How would you arrange the above four context-less 
> > > translations from grammatically least likely to 
> grammatically most 
> > > likely?
> > >  
> > > Thank you in advance for your help.
> > >  
> > > Dave   :)
> 
> 
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