[B-Greek] Word order in 2 Cor 5:19
Kimmo Huovila
kimmo.huovila at helsinki.fi
Tue May 15 14:49:33 EDT 2007
On Sunday 13 May 2007, you wrote:
> 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.
I am not suggesting it is unusual, but I assume that word order is significant
in Greek, and I attempt to determine its meaning here.
> Moving EN CRISTWi toward the front
> probably indicates focus as Carl suggested.
If EN CRISTWi is the focus, why is KOSMON before KATALLASSWN? What does is
signal?
> 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.
Agreed if we look at the whole clause. I basically commented on the word order
of the syntactic constituent "EN CRISTWi KOSMON KATALLASSWN".
> I am not at
> all certain that the topic-comment framework is particularly well
> suited to this passage.
>
OK. How would you analyze it?
> 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.
I have no easy way to look for passages with two constituents between EIMI and
the participle. A good list of passages would probably give me the tool to
answer my own question.
Kimmo Huovila
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