[B-Greek] Galatians 1:6-7

Elizabeth Kline kline_dekooning at earthlink.net
Wed Jun 10 02:52:45 EDT 2009


On Jun 9, 2009, at 10:24 PM, Donald COBB wrote:

> Welcome to the wonderful world of Paul's sometimes tortuous syntax!

I agree with just about everything Donald said.

EI MH follows a negative to introduce an exception/adversative. In the  
GNT, EI MH can be used like ALLA, see BDF 448.8. Zerwick's treatment  
#468-470 is more lucid than BDF.


Gal. 1:6 Θαυμάζω ὅτι οὕτως ταχέως  
μετατίθεσθε ἀπὸ τοῦ καλέσαντος  
ὑμᾶς ἐν χάριτι [Χριστοῦ] εἰς ἕτερον  
εὐαγγέλιον,  7 ὃ οὐκ ἔστιν ἄλλο, εἰ  
μή τινές εἰσιν οἱ ταράσσοντες ὑμᾶς  
καὶ θέλοντες μεταστρέψαι τὸ  
εὐαγγέλιον τοῦ Χριστοῦ.

GAL. 1:6 QAUMAZW hOTI hOUTWS TACEWS METATIQESQE APO TOU KALESANTOS  
hUMAS EN CARITI [CRISTOU] EIS hETERON EUAGGELION,  7 hO OUK ESTIN  
ALLO, EI MH TINES EISIN hOI TARASSONTES hUMAS KAI QELONTES METASTREYAI  
TO EUAGGELION TOU CRISTOU.

Notice that reading EI MH as in Classical[1] Greek creates a problem  
in Gal 1:19. Do you see the problem?

Gal. 1:19 ἕτερον δὲ τῶν ἀποστόλων οὐκ  
εἶδον εἰ μὴ Ἰάκωβον τὸν ἀδελφὸν  
τοῦ κυρίου.
GAL. 1:19 hETERON DE TWN APOSTOLWN OUK EIDON EI MH IAKWBON TON ADELFON  
TOU KURIOU.

F.F. Bruce (Gal. NIGTC p82 reads EI MH in v.7 as equivalent to PLHN  
hOTI, see Acts 20:23.

Acts 20:23 πλὴν ὅτι τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον  
κατὰ πόλιν διαμαρτύρεταί μοι λέγον  
ὅτι δεσμὰ καὶ θλίψεις με μένουσιν.

ACTS 20:23 PLHN hOTI TO PNEUMA TO hAGION KATA POLIN DIAMARTURETAI MOI  
LEGON hOTI DESMA KAI QLIYEIS ME MENOUSIN.


Elizabeth Kline

[1] The classical usage of EI MH see Lightfoot, Gal. p76, but compare  
his comments with Zerwick, BDF and Bruce.





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