[B-Greek] 1 Timothy 4:4-5 -- syntax

Barry H. nebarry at verizon.net
Sun Oct 10 22:44:39 EDT 2010


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Doug Knighton" <douglas.knighton at gmail.com>
To: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 10, 2010 7:57 PM
Subject: [B-Greek] 1 Timothy 4:4-5 -- syntax


>I am struggling with the syntax of 1 Timothy 4:4-5. The text reads: PAN
> KTISMA QIOU KALON KAI [OUDEN APOBLHTON META EUXARISTIAS LAMBANOMENON]
> hAGIAZETAI GAR DIA LOGOU ktl; in particular the portion in brackets.
>
> Most English renderings treat PAN ... KALON as a clause and OUDEN ...
> LAMBANOMENON as a separate (conditional) clause, followed by another
> clause
> in verse 5. E.g. the ESV: "Everything created by God is good, and nothing
> is
> to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by
> the word of God and prayer."
>
> I don't understand how an imperatival construct is justified between OUDEN
> &
> APOBLHTON, nor do I understand how the present participle of LAMBANW
> suggests a condtion. Maybe this is just a hermeneutical issue, but I could
> use some expertise on understanding the syntax of the sentence.
>
> For what it's worth, it seems more natural to me to hold both KALON and
> OUDEN APOBLHTON as predicate adjectives modifying KTISMA. This would mean
> that the participle (construed directly with the GAR clause) would also
> modify the head noun. So I would render the idea this way: Every creation
> of
> God is perfectly conceived & executed (= KALON), and nothing is thrown
> away;
> [each to be] received with gratitude, for it is made holy by means of the
> word of God and prayer.

Greetings, Doug, I'll give the unicode Greek since you give the
transliteration above:

4 ὅτι πᾶν κτίσμα θεοῦ καλόν, καὶ οὐδὲν ἀπόβλητον μετὰ εὐχαριστίας
λαμβανόμενον, 5 ἁγιάζεται γὰρ διὰ λόγου θεοῦ καὶ ἐντεύξεως.

1) ἀπόβλητον, APOBLHTON. The lexicons gloss with "to be rejected," going 
back to Homer.  There is no good reason for this sense to be, ahem, rejected 
here.

2) I am not sure I would take OUDEN as a predicate adjective (you seem to 
group it here with APOBLHTON).  I think it is better understood as a pronoun 
whose antecedent is KTISMA, or simply as a general reference (notice that 
there is a nice little chiasm with PAN...KTISMA (adj/noun) and OUDEN 
APOBLHTON (pronoun/adj...).

3) Participles may be used in a variety of senses.  If we start with a 
literal translation, "nothing being received is to be rejected," it is clear 
that English wants some sort of circumstantial or conditional clause.

4) "Perfectly concieved and executed" seems to put an awful lot of weight on 
KALON.  What's wrong with just plain "good?"

N.E. Barry Hofstetter, semper melius Latine sonat...
Classics and Bible Instructor, TAA
http://www.theamericanacademy.net
(2010 Salvatori Excellence in Education Winner)
V-P of Academic Affairs, TNARS
bhofstetter at tnars.net
http://www.tnars.net

http://my.opera.com/barryhofstetter/blog
http://mysite.verizon.net/nebarry





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