[B-Greek] strange "men" construction 1 Cor 2:15
N.E. Barry
nebarry at verizon.net
Fri Aug 27 08:25:38 EDT 2010
----- Original Message -----
From: "Iver Larsen" <iver_larsen at sil.org>
To: "hoshi411" <hoshi411 at gmail.com>; <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, August 27, 2010 1:21 AM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] strange "men" construction 1 Cor 2:15
> This is a good way to revise one's assumptions. For MEN when used in
> tandem with a following DE, the two things that are correlated are more
> important than where the MEN actually occurs in the overall sentence.
> While DE looks back, MEN looks forward.
>
> The first DE in hO DE PNEUMATIKOS looks back and contrasts with v. 14:
>
> ψυχικὸς δὲ ἄνθρωπος οὐ δέχεται τὰ τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ θεοῦ
> YUCIKOS DE ANQRWPOS OU DECETAI TA TOU PNEUMATOS TOU QEOU
>
> a soulish/unspiritual person cannot take in the things that come from the
> Spirit of God...
>
> This unspiritual person is then contrasted with the fronted phrase in v.
> 15:
>
> hO DE PNEUMATIKOS but for the spiritual [person] (the following applies:)
>
> ANAKRINEI MEN PANTA, AUTOS DE hUP OUDENOS ANAKRINETAI
>
> while he can judge/evaluate/examine all things, he himself can be judged
> by no one else (who is soulish/unspiritual)
>
> MEN is positioned after the main word that is correlated, whether noun,
> pronoun or verb.
Iver, while this is a very good explanation and defense of how MEN could be
used here, it strikes me, allowing that this is a subjective opinion based
on a limited text, that this is not a stylistic choice the writer to the
Hebrews would make, if we examine how carefully -- and unambiguously -- his
other uses of MEN are. Of course, if we follow the N-A here, it's not a
problem... :)
N.E. Barry Hofstetter
Classics & Bible Instructor @ The American Academy
2010 Salvatori Excellence in Education Winner
http://theamericanacademy.net
V-P, Academic Affairs, The North American Reformed Seminary
http://www.tnars.net/
http://my.opera.com/barryhofstetter/blog
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