[B-Greek] Assimilation of the Relative (was Attraction oftheRelative ...)
Iver Larsen
iver_larsen at sil.org
Tue Dec 15 10:10:00 EST 2009
One more example that I just happened to come across:
Gal 3:16 ἀλλ᾽ ὡς ἐφ᾽ ἑνός, Καὶ τῷ σπέρματί σου, ὅς ἐστιν Χριστός
ALL' hWS EQ' hENOS, KAI TWi SPERMATI SOU, hOS ESTIN CRISTOS
but as "concerning one: and his seed", who is Christ
The interesting thing to me was that some mss have hO ESTIN, and others have hOU
ESTIN.
If we just look at the relative clause in isolation, the proper word is hOS. The
neuter hO would refer to the whole preceding concept ("which implies Christ"),
while the hOU is attracted all the way back to hENOS (that one who is Christ).
hOS is unusual in that it does not follow the genitive attraction rule, but if
it is original, the lack of attraction may be caused by the intervening clauses.
Some scribes apparently saw the awkwardness of the hOS.
Iver Larsen
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