[B-Greek] Is GRAFH in the singular used in Josephus or Philo for all the scriptures?

James Ernest j.d.ernest at bc.edu
Sat Feb 16 23:37:13 EST 2008


Leonard Jayawardena <leonardj at live.com> wrote:
> In a note on Galatians 3:22 in his commentary "St. Paul's Epistle to the
Galatians,"
> J. B. Lightfoot expresses the view that, in the NT, GRAFH in the singular
always
> means a particular scriptural passage and says, "The biblical usage is
followed
> also by the earliest fathers. The transition from the 'Scriptures' to the
'Scripture' is
> analagous to the transition from [TA BIBLIA] to the 'Bible.'"

With regard to the earliest fathers: the Lampe lexicon finds hH GRAFH used
for the OT in general in 1 Clem. 34.6; 2 Clem. 68; 14.1; Barn. 4.7; but of
course Lightfoot knew these texts well, and if you look at them I think
you'll find nothing requiring GRAFH to mean more than the particular book of
scripture cited in each instance.

Within the NT, instances of hH GRAFH that are often treated as meaning
"scripture" in may rather refer to particular texts. E.g., hH GRAFH in John
10:35 refers to the specific citation in 10:34, and PASA GRAFH in 2 Tim 3:16
probably means "every scripture" rather than "all of scripture."


James Ernest



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