[B-Greek] Eph. 2:8-9; nonrestrictive relative clause
Josiah Matthews
josiahmatthews1 at hotmail.com
Tue Nov 6 14:01:11 EST 2007
Greetings!
I have a question within Ephesians 2:8-9.
8 THi GAR XARITI ESTE SESWiSMENOI DIA PISTEWS: KAI TOUTO OUK EC hUMWN, QEOU TO DWRON 9 OUK EX ERGWN, hINA MH TIS KAUXHSHTAI
I am reading an unpublished paper on these two verses. The paper claims that TOUTO, a demonstrative pronoun, is being used by Paul as a relative pronoun to refer specifically to PISTEWS, and this within a nonrestrictive relative clause, wherein TOUTO is the predicate nominative of the subject DWRON. The proposed relative clause is KAI TOUTO OUK EC hUMWN, QEOU TO DWRON. Justification for this view consists of Ephesians 6:17. I have found one more person who reached the same conclusion, and, in addition to Eph. 6:17, offered Mark 15:16 as grounds.
My question for the forum then is this. Is there grammatical justification in KOINE Greek for a demonstrative pronoun (hOUTOS; EKEINOS) to be used as a relative pronoun (hOS)?
For the sake of time and to avoid repetition, please, peruse the following notes.
Thank you and God bless,
Josiah Matthews
Castle Rock, CO
-----------------------------------------------------------
Notes:
1. I have found that the converse is true when a relative pronoun functions as an "embedded demonstrative" (Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, p. 340). Wallace gives five examples: Luke 9:36; John 4:18; 7:31; Heb. 5:8; 1 Peter 1:6.
2. I do not personally agree with the conclusion reached in the paper for the following reasons:
-TOUTO is not a relative pronoun (hence the question above). Both examples given (Mark 15:16 and Eph. 6:17) employ relative pronouns, and therefore seem to be irrelevant to Eph. 2:8-9. Although, they are good examples of "constructio ad sensum" (pronouns that do not agree in case, gender and/or number with their referent).
-DWRON is too far away from the pronoun TOUTO to be its referent. (Although I have read that the referents of demonstrative pronouns can be situated syntactically at a distance from the pronoun; whereas, the referents of relative pronouns need to be situated near the pronoun. This may not be accurate, as I'm just a beginner.)
-The proposed relative clause actually contains too many words to make any sense as a single sentence. I.e., "And the gift of God is not from yourselves this."
-Also, the verb EIMI is lacking in the phrase to support a relationship between the subject (DWRON) and predicate nominative (TOUTO).
3. I am aware of the number of times that the referent of TOUTO in Eph. 2:8 has been discussed on this helpful B-Greek forum (10/96; 01/98; 7/00; 06/05). I have personally reached the conclusion that TOUTO refers resumptively to the preceding phrase (THi GAR XARITI ESTE SESWiSMENOI DIA PISTEWS), and therefore I do not agree that TOUTO refers to PISTEWS alone.
_________________________________________________________________
Peek-a-boo FREE Tricks & Treats for You!
http://www.reallivemoms.com?ocid=TXT_TAGHM&loc=us
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list