[B-Greek] TOIOUTOS

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Thu Jun 18 12:37:10 EDT 2009


On Jun 18, 2009, at 11:07 AM, Charles Johnson wrote:

> 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 don't think that I suggested otherwise. TOIOUTOS/H/O, which is  
correlative is hOIOS/A/O, is essentially indicative of comparable  
quality, as TOSOUTOS/H/O, correlative with hOSOS/H/O, is essentially  
indicative of comparable quantity. The morpheme -OI- semantically  
inidcates quality, as the morpheme -OS- semantically indicates  
quantity. The morpheme -OI- is found in the compound adjective hOMOIOS/ 
A/ON, but this latter word also includes the morpheme hOM-, which is  
etymological akin to Greek hEIS/MIA/hEN (root SOM) and the English  
adjective "same." hOMOIOS means "of the SAME kind" while TOIOUTOS  
means "of LIKE kind." I don't know whether that helps you or not.

>
> 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)
>>
>>
>>
>>
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