[B-Greek] Two GS questions

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Wed Feb 16 14:51:02 EST 2011


On Feb 16, 2011, at 2:31 PM, bwmeyers at toast.net wrote:

> Luke 2:48  ". . . your father and I"

 ἰδοὺ ὁ πατήρ σου κἀγὼ ὀδυνώμενοι ἐζητοῦμέν σε. 
IDOU hO PATHR SOU KAGW ODUNWMENOI EZHTOUMEN SE.

> This is evidently not GS, but I'm not sure how to say exactly why.
> Apparently it's over the word, KAGW, which appears to be a contraction
> for "and-I"

I did a double-take here, not realizing at once that "GS" was suppsoed to
mean "a Granville-Sharp construction."
κἀγώ is, properly speaking, an instance of "crasis" -- the fusion of the final vowel or diphthong of one word with the initial vowel or diphthong of a following word; here the AI of KAI is fused with the E of EGW and the fusion is marked by what is called a "crasis mark" over the point of the fusion -- and the "crasis mark" is identical in form with a smooth breathing mark.

> Would the disqualification then be because a contraction doesn't count
> as a KAI, or would it be that "I" is considered a proper name?  Or
> some other reason?

No. I think rather that this doesn't count as a "GS" construction because it is perfectly clear that two different persons are being indicated here: "your father" and "I."

> John 17:3 --- as I recall, a hundred years or so ago, I thought that
> this was a valid GS:
> 
> The only True God AND Whom You sent, Jesus Christ.  That "The only
> True God" was thus identified with "Whom You sent."  As I remember,
> Dr. Conrad affirmed this, though I'm not too sure I understood him
> right, now.
> 
> The question is whether the ON in KAI ON APOSTEILAS is an article.
> Some references say "it might be."

Text please:
John 17:3 αὕτη δέ ἐστιν ἡ αἰώνιος ζωὴ ἵνα γινώσκωσιν σὲ τὸν μόνον ἀληθινὸν θεὸν καὶ ὃν ἀπέστειλας Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν.
[John 17:3 hAUTH DE ESTIN hH AIWNIOS ZWH hINA GINWSKWSIN SE TON MONON ALHQINON QEON KAI hON APESTEILAS IHSOUN CRISTON.]

hON is not an article; it is the accusative singular of the relative pronoun. Here there is an understood demonstrative, equivalent to EKEINON, functioning as the antecedent of hON: "the one/him whom you sent" And this verse too differentiates between "you" and "the one whom you sent." This is NOT a "GS" construction. TON construes with ALHQINON QEON but NOT with what follows it.

> 
> Wallace seems to to me to make John 17:3 and 1 John 5:20 "identical
> twin" passages in a discussion in GGBB.
> 
> If not so, the verse seems quite singular, to say the least.
> 
> Bob
> ---
> 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


Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)






More information about the B-Greek mailing list