[B-Greek] 1Co 13:7 PANTA believe all?
nebarry
nebarry at verizon.net
Fri May 13 08:24:25 EDT 2011
----- Original Message -----
From: "Carl Conrad" <cwconrad2 at mac.com>
To: "Barry H." <nebarry at verizon.net>
Cc: "Oun Kwon" <kwonbbl at gmail.com>; <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, May 13, 2011 7:19 AM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] 1Co 13:7 PANTA believe all?
> No, I don't think it involves hermeneutics or theology. But I think it
> does
> involve Greek usage and I'm inclined to think this is one of those phrases
> that is indicative of whether one is thinking in terms of Greek or English
> idiom. The subject is AGAPH, the language is figurative. It's not about
> loving God or God loving people, but about how one who really AGAPHN
> ECEI behaves toward other persons. The standard English versions do
> in fact render it "believes all things" -- but that's not really standard
> English;
> rather, we say, "believes everything" or "is altogether trusting." You
> might want to call this an accusative of respect with a neuter plural
> adjective as the equivalent of an adverbial expression, or call it an
> adverbial accusative. These terms, like so many of our grammatical
> terms, have been coined more as aids to translators than as significant
> indications of the way the Greek works. I don't think that the mind
> thinking in Greek gives a second thought to the difference between
> a "direct object" and an "adverbial accusative."
Well, yeah. The thought that occurs to me is that all accusatives,
including what we call the direct object, are adverbial -- after all, the
d.o. modifies the action of the verb by indicating the direction of the
action, so to speak. Here, it's part of a series (nicely done from a
rhetorical perspective), all with verbs that normally take accusatives. I
agree that a native Greek speaker wouldn't have given the grammar a second
thought, but I can also here him asking the question, "Does Paul mean that
literally?" or some such... So I think that it does involve hermeneutics
and theology beyond simply the grammar and syntax.
> And Barry, when I read your signature motto, it reminds me of
> euphemisms generally, but especially of those old bowdlerizing
> versions -- yea, verily, even Loeb editions -- that offer a French
> rather than English version of the obscene expressions or poems --
> even when there's a common English expression that everybody
> knows!
This actually occurred to me after I thought of the tag line.
N.E. Barry Hofstetter
Classics and Bible @ TAA
http://www.theamericanacademy.net
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list