[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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