[B-Greek] PASA GRAFH QEOPNEUSTOS KAID WFELIMOS--2  Timothy 3:16

CEP7 at aol.com CEP7 at aol.com
Sun Jul 26 20:06:46 EDT 2009


Dan Wallace has written on p. 314 of his grammar:

(2) Grammatically: (a) The fact that v 16 is asyndetic (i.e., begins 
without a conjunction) cannot be due to new subject matter, but to the solemnity 
of the statement because the author had been discussing the holy writings in 
v 15. Thus seeing qeo/pneustoß as predicate fits in better with the solemn 
tone established at the beginning of the verse. (b) Since the copula is 
lacking, it needs to be supplied in English. And the most natural place to supply 
the equative verb is between the subject and the first word that follows 
it. It is in fact significant that an author typically leaves out the copula 
when he assumes the audience knows where it naturally should go. (c) The fact 
that kai÷ means “and” twelve times as often as it means “also,” as well 
as the fact that it is unnatural to translate it adverbially as “also” 
between two adjectives in the same case,
{p. 314}      argues for a predicate qeo/pneustoß.56 (d) Since the article 
may be anaphoric when referring back to a synonym, and since the author has 
been discussing the scriptures with three different synonyms in this context 
(vv 15, 16, and 4:2), it seems likely that the article is anaphoric in 4:2 
when he declares, “Preach the word!” (kh/ruxon to\n lo/gon). If the writer 
had said that only inspired scripture was profitable in 3:16 and then tells 
his reader(s) to preach all scripture (= “the word”), it might be a 
misleading statement, for [Timothy] might inadvertently preach some scripture that 
was not inspired. But since the writer leaves lo/gon unqualified apart from 
the fact that it referred back to grafh/ of v 16, it is perhaps likely that 
he meant to make an assertion about all scripture in v 16, viz., that it is 
inspired.57 (e) Finally, what bears on the relation of adj. to noun most 
directly: In the NT, LXX, in classical and Koine Greek, the overwhelming 
semantic force of an adj.-noun-adj. construction in an equative clause is that the 
first adj. will be attributive and the second will be predicate.58 There 
are almost 50 instances in the NT and LXX in which the second adj. in such a 
construction is predicate and the first is attributive (39 of which involve pa
ק before the noun; most in the LXX) and none on the other side. The 
evidence is so overwhelming that we may suggest a “rule”: In pa◊ß + noun + 
adjective constructions in equative clauses the paק, being by nature as definite 
as the article, implies the article, thus making the adjective(s) following 
the noun outside the implied article-noun group and, therefore, predicate.59 
In the least, the evidence renders translations of this verse such as the 
NEB’s (“every inspired scripture has its use”) highly suspect.



Charles Powell
cep7 at aol.com
850-678-9118


In a message dated 7/26/09 9:10:23 AM, leonardj at live.com writes:


> 
> 
> My thanks to all who responded to my posts on the above subject.
> 
> My parallel to 2 Timothy 3:16 from Mark 2:26 is certainly not perfect as 
> in the one case we have two adjectives and two genitives in the other. In 
> the absence of a parallel containing two adjectives, this is the best I can 
> do at the moment. But the point of comparison between the two verses is 
> this. Mark 2:28 contains two genitives which we would not normally separate but 
> are compelled to because the parallels, the context and our prior 
> knowledge of the expression "the son of man" demand it. The predicative 
> construction of QEOPNEUSTOS results in a translation, as either "All scripture is 
> God-breathed and profitable, etc." or "Every scripture is God-breathed and 
> profitable, etc.," which is not exegetically acceptable to me, because I do not 
> think that the statement that all scriptures are God-breathed can be 
> proved from the Bible (a demonstration of that lies beyond the scope of this 
> forum). For me a predicative construction of QEOPNEUSTOS results in a 
> contradiction in the Bib
> le which is not acceptable to me, though I am not an inerrantist.  So what 
> does a person in that fix do?  An attributive QEOPNEUSTOS does yield a 
> translation ("Every God-breathed writing is also profitable, etc.") that 
> avoids this contradiction--Don't ask me how it does that, for that would take us 
> to the realm of exegesis. A predicative QEOPNEUSTOS has Paul making a 
> serious error, so, to avoid that, I adopt a construction that separates the two 
> adjectives linked by KAI, just as the two genitives in Mark 2:28 are 
> separated to obtain a meaningful translation. That is the point of comparison. 
> In the case of Mark 2:28, nobody asks for an exact parallel before accepting 
> the translation "so that the son of man is Lord also (or even) of the 
> sabbath"--that translation is just taken for granted--so why am I required to 
> produce a parallel to my translation "Every God-breathed writing is also 
> profitable, etc."?
> 
> With regard to Mark L.'s inquiry, I am not writing my article against a 
> deadline. I can submit it for publication (on the Web) whenever it is ready.
> 
> Vasileios Tsialas wrote:
> 
> Quote
> 
> Interestingly NET gives the following
> comments: 'Some have connected this adjective in a different way and 
> translated
> it as "every inspired scripture is also useful." But this violates
> the parallelism of the two adjectives in the sentence, and the arrangement 
> of
> words makes clear that both should be taken as predicate adjectives: 
> "every scripture is inspired and useful."'
> 
> End of quote
> 
> May I adapt it as follows:  'Some have connected the second genitive in 
> Mark 2:28 in a different way and translated it as "so that the son of man is 
> Lord also of the sabbath." But this violates the parallelism of the two 
> genitives in the sentence, and the arrangement of words makes clear that both 
> should be taken as genitives modifying the noun "son': "the son of man and 
> of the sabbath."' ???
> 
> Vasileios Tsialas' post raises certain other issues relevant to my 
> interest and I will respond to them in a separate post.
> 
> Leonard Jayawardena
> Sri Lanka
> 




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