[B-Greek] 2 Tim 3:16: Force of PASA...PROS
Yancy Smith
yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net
Fri Jan 29 15:15:42 EST 2010
It is interesting that Clement of Alexandria, a native Greek speaker who lived not long after the death of Paul takes pains to define the meaning of PASA GRAFH in Protrepticus 9.87:
Ἱερὰ γὰρ ὡς ἀληθῶς τὰ ἱεροποιοῦντα καὶ θεοποιοῦντα γράμματα, ἐξ ὧν γραμμάτων καὶ συλλαβῶν τῶν ἱερῶν τὰς συγκειμένας γραφάς, τὰ συντάγματα, ὁ αὐτὸς ἀκολούθως ἀπόστολος «θεοπνεύστους» καλεῖ,
»ὠφελίμους οὔσας πρὸς διδασκαλίαν, πρὸς ἔλεγχον, πρὸς ἐπανόρθωσιν, πρὸς παιδείαν τὴν ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ, ἵνα ἄρτιος
ᾖ ὁ τοῦ θεοῦ ἄνθρωπος πρὸς πᾶν ἔργον ἀγαθὸν ἐξηρτημένος.
hIERA GAR hWS ALHQWS TA hIEROPOIOUNTA KAI QEOPOIOUNTA GRAMMATA, EX hWN GRAMMATWN KAI SULLABWN TWN hIERWN TAS SUGKEIMENAS GRAFAS, TA SUNTAGMA, hO AUTOS AKOLOUQWS APOSTLOS "QEOPNEUSTOUS" KALEI, "WFELIMOUS OUSAS PROS DIDASKALIAN, PROS ELEGCOS PROS WPANORQWSIN, PROS PAIDEIAN THN EN DIKAIOSUNHi, hINA ARTIOS H hO TOU QEOU ANQRWPOS PROS PAN ERGON
"For the holy writings which truly make one holy and make one divine, the Scriptures in their entirety composed of letters and holy syllables, the composition as a whole, the apostle himself consequently calls them "God-breathed" and "useful for teaching, reproof, correction, education in righteousness, so that the person of God may be well-prepared and equipped for any good endeavor."
The list of activities that Paul gives for with the Scriptures are useful boild down to one thing, the first and last thing: "DIDASKALIAN" or "PAIDEI H EN DIKAIOSUNH" that is, the education of the person dedicated to God. The list suggests a comprehensive activity, rather than discrete, disparate activities.
Yancy Smith
Yancy W. Smith, PhD
World Bible Translation Center
4028 Daley Ave., Suite 201
Fort Worth, TX 76180
p 817-595-1664
f 817580-7013
yancy at wbtc.org
Be kinder than necessary for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.
-----Original Message-----
From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Carl Conrad
Sent: Friday, January 29, 2010 10:40 AM
To: Kenneth Litwak
Cc: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] 2 Tim 3:16: Force of PASA...PROS
On Jan 28, 2010, at 11:57 PM, Kenneth Litwak wrote:
> 2 Tim 3:16 reads in part
> PASA GRAFH QEOPNEUSTOS KAI WFELIMOS PROS DIDASKALIAN PROS ELEGMON PROS EPANORQWSIN PROS PAIDEIAN THN EN DIKAIOSUNH
>
> My question is whether there is any syntactical principle that would tell a reader if this is saying
> 1. "Every Scripture is God-breathed and useful for the purpose of teaching (and useful) for the purpose of rebuke (and useful) for the purpose of rebuke (and useful) for the purpose of improvement (and useful) for the purpose of training which is in righteousness", i.e., every Scripture, Job to Isaiah, Ruth to 2 Chronicles, is useful for each and every one of these accusative nouns
>
> OR
> 2. "All Scripture is God-breathed and various parts are useful for various things, such as teaching, rebuke, improvement, and/or training which is in righteousness", i.e., the list of accusative nouns lists some of the things that the totality of GRAFH can do, although no one part of Scripture must have every PROS phrase be applicable to it
It would appear that what this text does NOT say has given free rein to a broad range of assumptions and interpretations on some such principle as QUOD TACET, CLAMAT, i.e. "It clearly implies what it doesn't say." I am not aware of any factors grounded solely in the language employed that would validate #2. With regard to #1, I don't see any indicator whatsoever of which text(s) are indicated as "useful" for the specific purposes mentioned.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
---
B-Greek home page: http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek
B-Greek mailing list
B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list