EX AUTOU

From: John M. Moe (John.M.Moe-1@tc.umn.edu)
Date: Wed Apr 09 1997 - 07:08:28 EDT


Micheal Palmer wrote:
>>At 7:23 AM -0600 4/5/97, Carl W. Conrad wrote:

>>Secondly, while it is certainly true, as Jonathan has said and as Micheal
>>Palmer has said in a different way, that PNEUMATOS is genitive because EK
>>must be construed with a genitive, I think it should be added that EK +
>>genitive may function in Koine in the same way that a partitive genitive
>>itself functioned as a complement to a verb in earlier phases of Greek. Let
>>me use a simplistic but not unuseful (I think) example: PINW TOU OINOU is
>>classical Greek expressing the sense "I'm sipping some wine" while PINW TON
>>OINON (which one is far less likely to see) would mean something like "I'm
>>gulping down (whatever) wine (is available). Now it seems to me that the
>>gospel and the first letter of John in the passage you have cited are
>>indicating that PNEUMA or the PLHRWMA or the hUDWR ZWON provided to
>>believers by Jesus are inexhaustible sources from which the believer draws
>>to sustain ZWHN AIWNION. One partakes of it, i.e, one takes part of it--one
>>does not take it all nor could one possibly do so. In that sense, then, I
>>think it is valid to understand the expression EK TOU PNEUMATOS AUTOU in 1
>>Jn 4:13 as a partitive one.

>Carl's point is born out excellently by an appearance in the New Testament
>of exactly the same example example he cites from Attic, and it appears
>exactly as he suggested it would: with the preposition EK followed by the
>genitive. In Matthew 26:27 (in the Lord's Supper scene) Jesus takes the cup
>and after giving thanks says

> PIETE EX AUTOU PANTES
> All of you drink of/from it
> *NOT* Each one of you drink it all.

<Snip>

This raises a point I have been wrestling with for some time. Is EX
AUTOU, at Mat. 26:27 partitive genitive or is it a simple, straight
forward use of the preposition? Granted, we have a figure of speech
here. Logicaly, the cup stands for its contents. But grammaticaly,
isn't the antecedent of AUTOU, POTHRION? Does the grammar demand the
understanding "drink out of it?" Or does the figure of speech justify a
partitive understanding "drink from it?"

John M. Moe



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