[B-Greek] Regarding WS

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Thu Jan 17 06:17:45 EST 2008


On Jan 17, 2008, at 5:58 AM, RHutchin at aol.com wrote:

> I was looking at the use of WS in the NT.? It seems always to be  
> paired with a noun to complete the thought.
>
> Is there a grammatical rule that tells us that? WS + NOUN? is the  
> proper usage?? If a noun were absent, it would be implied.? I  
> skimmed through some verses that I found and it always seemed that  
> WS was linked to a noun.
>
> Does anyone recall instances in the NT where WS is not linked with a  
> noun to complete the thought and thus would be exceptions to this??  
> If there are such cases, is a noun implicit and clearly understood?

While hWS is often used as a particle of comparison with a noun, it is  
by no means always so used -- and even where it is followed  
immediately by a noun or noun phrase, the hWS may introduce an entire  
clause, e.g., ἐποίησεν ὡς προσέταξεν αὐτῷ  
ὁ ἄγγελος (EPOIHSEN hWS PROSETAXEN AUTWi hO AGGELOS) Mt 1:24.  
This question could have been addressed most readily by consulting a  
good lexicon, BDAG or LSJ. I won't cite a lexicon article because it's  
just too long. Suffice it to say that hWS, originally the relative  
adverb derived from the relative pronoun hOS/hH/hO, has a fairly broad  
range of usage.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)





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