[b-greek] Re: Gal 3:8 ( the dangling subject)

From: Iver Larsen (alice-iver_larsen@wycliffe.org)
Date: Mon Feb 12 2001 - 07:16:08 EST


> At 8:20 AM -0500 2/11/01, Moon-Ryul Jung wrote:
> >[Moon]
> >> >In Gal 3:8 we have:
> >> >
> >> >PROIDOUSA hH GRAFH hOTI EK PISTEWS DIKAIOI TA EQNH hO QEOS,
> >> >PROEUANGGELISATO TWi ABRAHAM hOTI ENEULOGHQHSONTAI EN SOI
> >> >PANTA TA EQNH.
> >> >
> >
> >[Carl]
> >> Is the distance between PROEUAGGELISATO from hH GRAFH the real problem? I
> >> think the only thing distancing that verb from the subject is the need to
> >> complete the object of PROIDOUSA by giving the entire hOTI clause.
> >
> >[Moon]
> >Is there any reason why Paul did not write as follows?
> >
> > PROIDOUSA hOTI EK PISTEWS DIKAIOI TA EQNH hO QEOS,
> >> >PROEUANGGELISATO hH GRAFH TWi ABRAHAM hOTI ENEULOGHQHSONTAI EN SOI
> >> >PANTA TA EQNH.
>
>
> Now why would Paul want to make things easy for us? You'll have to ask him
> when you get the chance. I don't know what our word-order buffs will say,
> but it seems to me that the word-order indicates that Paul puts his causal
> participial phrase in advance of the verb; well, you've done that too.
> Certainly there's no reason why the sentence COULD NOT have been formulated
> as you suggest, but it wasn't so formulated. I sometimes suspect that the
> fact of Paul's dictating to an amanuensis is a factor in producing what to
> us seems a rather contorted syntactic formulation. Plato is said to have
> spent the better part of a whole day settling upon the word-order of the
> opening sentence of the Republic: KATEBHN CQES EIS THN PEIRAIA; I find that
> hard to believe actually, although I can readily believe that Plato went to
> great pains with his writing. Vergil is said to have dictated 10 lines of
> Latin hexameters in the morning and then to have spent the rest of the day
> "licking them into shape like a mother bear her cubs." Paul never had that
> luxury when writing letters, I think.
>
> Carl W. Conrad
It seems to me that Moon' suggestion is more complex to process mentally than
what Paul said, because then the subject GRAFH is missing from where it is
needed most. Carl has a good point that Paul did not write the text down and
then went back over it to push it into shape. He had to formulate his thoughts
in his mind before saying/dictating them. Similarly, the letter was intended to
be understood by people who heard it read.

In this example, hH GRAFH is the semantic agent (subject) for both the finite
clause and the fronted participial, dependent clause. Once the participle
PROIDOUSA has been heard, the hearer is waiting for a feminine noun as subject.
It is easier to connect PROIDOUSA with GRAFH if GRAFH occurs as soon as posible
after PROIDOUSA, rather than having to keep a lot of other stuff in the mind
until finally in the finite clause, you hear the subject GRAFH.

Another aspect is that Greek has a general principle which could be formulated:
"first things first". (Anaphoric reference is much easier to process than
kataphoric, especially in oral communication.) And one often has to supply
lexical items from the previous context. They are carried over in the back of
the mind and supplied where needed. So, if underlyingly both the dependant
participial clause and the finite clause have the same subject GRAFH, it is
normal to keep the first occurrence and delete the second, since the second can
then be supplied from what has already been said.

There was a interesting example of this carrying-over the other day in the
construction from Rom 4:16:
EIS TO EINAI BEBAIAN THN EPAGGELIAN PANTI TWi SPERMATI, OU TWi EK TOU NOMOU
MONON ALLA KAI TWi
EK PISTEWS ABRAAM

The word SPERMATI can easily be carried forward and supplied to fill out the
following phrases:
OU TWi SPERMATI EK TOU NOMOU MONON ALLA KAI TWi SPERMATI EK PISTEWS ABRAAM.
(So that the promise would surely apply to ALL descendants (of Abraham), not
only to those (who are) descendants (of Abraham after the flesh, i.e. Jews) on
the basis of the law, but also to those (who are) descendants (of Abraham,
spritually speaking, Jews or Gentiles) on the basis of having faith like
Abraham.)

Iver Larsen


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