[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)
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list