[b-greek] Re: 2 Cor 12:7 and punctuation

From: Iver Larsen (iver_larsen@sil.org)
Date: Sat Dec 15 2001 - 04:24:10 EST


KAI THi hUPERBOLHi TWN APOKALUYEWN (DIO) hINA MH hUPERAIRWMAI EDOQH MOI
SKOLOY THi SARKI (hINA MH hUPERAIRWMAI)

Clay responded:
> DIO is only given a {D} rating in Metzger (Text Com. 1st Ed.).
> Lets say we dump DIO, then THi hUPERBOLHi TWN APOKALUYEWN can be seen as
limiting the
> verb hUPERAIRWMAI. H.A.W. Meyer calls it a "dativus instrumenti."
> Both Meyer and Henry Alford say that the forward position of THi
hUPERBOLHi TWN
> APOKALUYEWN is used to focus attention on this constituent.

Thanks, Clay. This is pretty much how I would take it. I would still prefer
to take DIO as original, but I am also happy to leave it out. I don't think
it alters the sense of the whole verse whether it is present or not. I also
see the dative phrase as fronted in order to focus on it as the potential
grounds possibly not just for hUPERAIRWMAI but for the whole sentence that
includes an action and its purpose (I was given so that not...). The DIO
helps to clarify the reason-result relationship which is not clear from the
dative alone.
The whole verse looks like a convoluted reason+result[=purpose+action]
construction, something like:
And occasioned by the great revelations, therefore - so that I should not be
too elated - there was given to me a thorn (so that I should not be too
elated).
The second hINA MH clause is missing from several good manuscripts like A
and Sinaiticus, and I am pretty sure it is not original. Probably the hINA
MH clause was also fronted, and then added again where it would normally
occur.
A more straightforward order in English would be action+purpose+reason: "I
was given a thorn so that I should not be too elated because of the great
revelations." But in English, too, it is quite possible to focus on the
reason clause by fronting it. If this is done it becomes the reason for the
whole following sentence rather than only the immediately preceding clause:
"Because of the great revelations, I was given a thorn so that I should not
be too elated."

My question came up, partly because both NA and the UBS Greek text punctuate
with a full stop after the dative, before DIO, partly because several new
translations like NJB, NRSV, NLT and the NET Bible have tried to make sense
of this punctuation - without success, IMO. The KJV incorporated the dative
phrase in the purpose clause: "And lest I should be exalted above measure
through the abundance of the revelations there was given to me..."

Iver Larsen


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