[B-Greek] Word order in 2 Cor 5:19

Elizabeth Kline kline_dekooning at earthlink.net
Sun May 13 16:59:21 EDT 2007


The text again:

2COR. 5:18 TA DE PANTA EK TOU QEOU TOU KATALLAXANTOS hHMAS hEAUTWi  
DIA CRISTOU KAI DONTOS hHMIN THN DIAKONIAN THS KATALLAGHS,  19 hWS  
hOTI QEOS HN EN CRISTWi KOSMON KATALLASSWN hEAUTWi, MH LOGIZOMENOS  
AUTOIS TA PARAPTWMATA AUTWN KAI QEMENOS EN hHMIN TON LOGON THS  
KATALLAGHS.


On May 13, 2007, at 3:19 AM, Kimmo Huovila wrote:

> If we see it as a periphrastic verb, why are there two constituents  
> (EN
> CRISTWi, KOSMON) in between? In other words, what does that word order
> signal?


As for the splitting of the periphrastic verbal construction, I don't  
think that is anything unusual. Moving EN CRISTWi toward the front  
probably indicates focus as Carl suggested. Semantically EN CRISTWi  
appears to function like DIA CRISTOU in v18. You asked if  EN CRISTWi  
was topicalized. I don't see that as a possibility. Perhaps we are  
using the terminology in a different way. If we were to treat 19a as  
a topic-comment construction the QEOS would be the topic. I am not at  
all certain that the topic-comment framework is particularly well  
suited to this passage.

Anyway, I should also say that an examination of spilt periphrastic  
verbal constructions in earlier greek texts might lead one to think  
that rhetoric was the primary driving force here. There is nothing  
particularly noteworthy about placing predicate arguments between the  
EIMI form and the participle.

Elizabeth Kline







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