[B-Greek] TOIOUTOS

Charles Johnson cpj5117 at gmail.com
Thu Jun 18 11:07:28 EDT 2009


Carl, in Mat. 18:5, isn't Jesus referring to any little child? TOIOUTO does
not seem to me to be designating a specific kind of child that we are
supposed to receive. Why would that particular child not qualify for
reception in Jesus' name?

I have surveyed the NT references, and right now I am fairly convinced that
TOIOUTOS usually acts inclusively, "of this sort" rather than "similar to,"
although sometimes those two could be interchangeable. I've also found a few
interesting uses that seem to place the emphasis in other area. What I
haven't found is a passage that works exclusively, like hOMOIOS seems to do
sometimes.

I was intrigued because I visited a friend's church, where the pastor
preached from Luke 18:15-17, which contains the phrase TWN GAR TOIOUTWN
ESTIV hH BASILEIA TOU THEOU. The pastor said that "such" did *not* actually
refer to the infants (BREFH v. 15) at all, but people who were "like"
children. Now, clearly in the next verse Jesus makes a statement of
comparison, but is it really grammatically possible to exclude the PAIDIA
from the sphere of Jesus' statement in v. 16?

On Thu, Jun 18, 2009 at 10:27 AM, Carl Conrad <cwconrad2 at mac.com> wrote:

>
> On Jun 18, 2009, at 9:11 AM, Charles Johnson wrote:
>
>  I am wrestling with the meaning of the pronoun TOIOUTOS. Louw-Nida gives
>> as
>> one definition "like that." The word "like," though, if taken to mean
>> "similar to" or "resembling," points also to unlikeness. It can function
>> to
>> exclude the first person from the class. If someone said, "I would like to
>> marry someone like my sister," we would naturally infer that he means
>> someone resembling his sister, but not her. So, the class is PEOPLE
>> RESEMBLING SISTER - SISTER.  However, I had been under the impression that
>> TOIOUTOS functioned by specifying a class. For example, in Acts 22:22, we
>> have AIRE APO THS GHS TOV TOIOUTON, where the primary referent is Paul.
>> So,
>> the class would be PEOPLE RESEMBLING PAUL + PAUL. At other times, the
>> class
>> can be specified more ideally, such as in John 4:23 -  hO PATHR TOIOUTOUS
>> ZHTEI TOUS PROSKUNOUNTOUS AUTON. Here an ideal referent is used, so I
>> suppose the class is just PEOPLE WHO WILL WORSHIP IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH.
>>
>> So, is there ever a time where TOIOUTOUS is used exclusively, as in the
>> sister example?
>>
>
> How about this: Matt. 18:5 καὶ ὃς ἐὰν δέξηται ἓν παιδίον τοιοῦτο ἐπὶ τῷ
> ὀνόματί μου, ἐμὲ δέχεται. [KAI hOS EAN DEXHTAI hEN PAIDION TOIOUTO EPI TWi
> ONOMATI MOU, EME DECETAI.]
>
> Jesus is probably referring to the innocent, guileless character of the
> child who is the exemplar rather than the birthmark on his left cheek, so I
> would think that here the comparable child would be a different child but
> like this child in the significant respects.
>
> It might help you to look at a whole slew of GNT passages ontaining
> TOIOUTOS; here's the list Accordance yields:
> τοιοῦτος [TOIOUTOS]  such, of such kind  (57)
>        Matt 9:8; 18:5; 19:14; Mark 4:33; 6:2; 7:13; 9:37; 10:14; 13:19;
> Luke 9:9; 18:16; John 4:23; 8:5; 9:16; Acts 16:24; 19:25; 22:22; 26:29; Rom
> 1:32; 2:2-3; 16:18; 1 Cor 5:1, 5, 11; 7:15, 28; 11:16; 15:48; 16:16, 18; 2
> Cor 2:6-7; 3:4, 12; 10:11; 11:13; 12:2-3, 5; Gal 5:21, 23; 6:1; Eph 5:27;
> Phil 2:29; 2 Th 3:12; Titus 3:11; Philem 1:9; Heb 7:26; 8:1; 11:14; 12:3;
> 13:16; James 4:16; 3 John 1:8
>
>
> Carl W. Conrad
> Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
>
>
>
>



More information about the B-Greek mailing list