ἐν (τῷ) κόσμῳ

Stephen Carlson
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ἐν (τῷ) κόσμῳ

Post by Stephen Carlson »

Since there is only one world, κόσμος is one of those nouns that are considered to be definite by definition. By my count, it takes the article in 165 instances, but in 20 places (just over 10%) it does not. It is generally known that the article is often omitted in prepositional phrases, and we can see some influence of that when we look at κόσμῳ as the object of the preposition ἐν. In 15 instances it takes the article, and in 3 it does not, almost 17% of the cases. So there's some but not a massive effect.

Here are the instances without the article:
  • Phil 2:15 φαίνεσθε ὡς φωστῆρες ἐν κόσμῳ
  • Col 2:20b τί ὡς ζῶντες ἐν κόσμῳ δογματίζεσθε
  • 1 Tim 3:16 ἐκηρύχθη ἐν ἔθνεσιν, ἐπιστεύθη ἐν κόσμῳ, ἀνελήμφθη ἐν δόξῃ
Here are the instances with the article:
  • John 1:10 ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἦν
  • John 9:5 ὅταν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ὦ
  • John 12:25 καὶ ὁ μισῶν τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ τούτῳ εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον φυλάξει αὐτήν
  • John 13:1 ἀγαπήσας τοὺς ἰδίους τοὺς ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ
  • John 16:33 ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ θλῖψιν ἔχετε
  • John 17:11a καὶ οὐκέτι εἰμὶ ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ
  • John 17:11b καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ εἰσίν
  • John 17:13 καὶ ταῦτα λαλῶ ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ
  • 2 Cor 1:12 ἀνεστράφημεν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ
  • Eph 2:12 καὶ ἄθεοι ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ
  • 1 John 2:15 Μὴ ἀγαπᾶτε τὸν κόσμον μηδὲ τὰ ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ
  • 1 John 2:16 ὅτι πᾶν τὸ ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ
  • 1 John 4:3 καὶ νῦν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἐστὶν ἤδη
  • 1 John 4:4 ὅτι μείζων ἐστὶν ὁ ἐν ὑμῖν ἢ ὁ ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ
  • 1 John 4:17 ὅτι καθὼς ἐκεῖνός ἐστιν καὶ ἡμεῖς έσμεν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ τούτῳ
Any suggestions why ἐν (τῷ) κόσμῳ sometimes lacks the article?
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
Melbourne, Australia
Stirling Bartholomew
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Re: ἐν (τῷ) κόσμῳ

Post by Stirling Bartholomew »

You might want to check the church fathers.

Numbers from an incomplete Patristic Corpus

ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ 381
ἐν κόσμῳ 479
C. Stirling Bartholomew
Stephen Carlson
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Re: ἐν (τῷ) κόσμῳ

Post by Stephen Carlson »

Stirling Bartholomew wrote: June 8th, 2020, 8:14 pm You might want to check the church fathers.
I could and I may, but let's start with this.
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
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John Kendall
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Re: ἐν (τῷ) κόσμῳ

Post by John Kendall »

The only work I can recall attempting to deal with such questions in any depth is Richard Hoyle's Scenarios, Discourse and Translation. It's a long time since I worked through it. He develops Levinsohn's claim that the absence of the article with identifiable participants marks them as in some way salient. He provides a long appendix on types of salience in Greek discourse.

I can't recall if he discusses any of the three passages you cite. I'd need to revisit Hoyle and look in more detail at the passages to make any useful comment. The work is online here: https://www.sil.org/system/files/reapda ... lation.pdf
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Re: ἐν (τῷ) κόσμῳ

Post by Jonathan Robie »

Stephen Carlson wrote: June 8th, 2020, 7:15 pm Any suggestions why ἐν (τῷ) κόσμῳ sometimes lacks the article?
I haven't looked at the contexts in which each of these phrases occur yet, but it seems obvious that the Johannine uses in this list all contain the article. Outside of the Johannine writings, we're left with this:
  • Phil 2:15 φαίνεσθε ὡς φωστῆρες ἐν κόσμῳ
  • Col 2:20b τί ὡς ζῶντες ἐν κόσμῳ δογματίζεσθε
  • 1 Tim 3:16 ἐκηρύχθη ἐν ἔθνεσιν, ἐπιστεύθη ἐν κόσμῳ, ἀνελήμφθη ἐν δόξῃ
Here are the instances with the article:
  • 2 Cor 1:12 ἀνεστράφημεν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ
  • Eph 2:12 καὶ ἄθεοι ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ
Might be interesting to start by looking at this smaller list ...
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Stephen Carlson
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Re: ἐν (τῷ) κόσμῳ

Post by Stephen Carlson »

John Kendall wrote: June 9th, 2020, 6:35 am The only work I can recall attempting to deal with such questions in any depth is Richard Hoyle's Scenarios, Discourse and Translation. It's a long time since I worked through it. He develops Levinsohn's claim that the absence of the article with identifiable participants marks them as in some way salient. He provides a long appendix on types of salience in Greek discourse.
I'm glad you brought up Hoyle, because I've been looking at the Levinsohn tradition for the article, to which Hoyle belongs. Also there is Janssen's DTS dissertation on the article in Paul.

OK, let's look at Hoyle:
Hoyle 2008:142-3 wrote:In the light of the observations above, I make the following hypotheses concerning
use of the Greek article:
  • The use of the article in Greek can be defined in terms of two categories: information status and salience.
  • The basic use of the article in Greek is not to mark that an item is Discourse-old, but to mark that it is Hearer-old, in short-term or long-term memory. Naturally, whatever is Discourse-old will also be Hearer-old, but Hearer-old also includes the categories KNOWN unused, KNOWN inferrable, and GIVEN situational.
  • All nouns without the article are “salient” either because they are Hearer-new, or because the author chooses to mark Hearer-old items as salient. “Salient” means having some special significance in the discourse, potentially at any level, e.g. marking clause-level focus, marking theme at clause level or higher levels of discourse, or highlighting interpersonal relations, etc.
I'll assume that the world is hearer-old (I guess KNOWN unused), so let's look at salience:

How is κόσμῳ in Phil 2:15 φαίνεσθε ὡς φωστῆρες ἐν κόσμῳ salient?

And how is κόσμῳ in John 1:10 ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἦν not salient?

(Neither of these are discussed by Hoyle or Janssen.)
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
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Jonathan Robie
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Re: ἐν (τῷ) κόσμῳ

Post by Jonathan Robie »

Stephen Carlson wrote: June 9th, 2020, 9:54 am And how is κόσμῳ in John 1:10 ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἦν not salient?
If John always uses the article in this phrase, the question may not be relevant here.
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nathaniel j. erickson
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Re: ἐν (τῷ) κόσμῳ

Post by nathaniel j. erickson »

I haven't looked at the contexts in which each of these phrases occur yet, but it seems obvious that the Johannine uses in this list all contain the article. Outside of the Johannine writings, we're left with this:

Phil 2:15 φαίνεσθε ὡς φωστῆρες ἐν κόσμῳ
Col 2:20b τί ὡς ζῶντες ἐν κόσμῳ δογματίζεσθε
1 Tim 3:16 ἐκηρύχθη ἐν ἔθνεσιν, ἐπιστεύθη ἐν κόσμῳ, ἀνελήμφθη ἐν δόξῃ
Given that 1 Tim 3.16 is in a highly structured "hymnic" section, it seems like the question of why it is anarthrous is intimately related with larger structural concerns of its immediate context. If it were to have an article here, it would be rather awkward.

Of course, this doesn't give the reason why the whole set is anarthrous. For example the next prep. phrase in the verse, ἐν δόξῃ, is articular 10x and anarthrous 9x in the NT. But, it seems like for this instance the explanation for why ἐν κόσμῳ is anarthrous would actually be found by explaining why ἐν σαρκί is anarthrous and then appealing to "poetic" style (or that the same reason holds for all 5 prepositional phrases in the "hymnic" section).
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Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
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Jonathan Robie
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Re: ἐν (τῷ) κόσμῳ

Post by Jonathan Robie »

nathaniel j. erickson wrote: June 9th, 2020, 10:45 am
I haven't looked at the contexts in which each of these phrases occur yet, but it seems obvious that the Johannine uses in this list all contain the article. Outside of the Johannine writings, we're left with this:

Phil 2:15 φαίνεσθε ὡς φωστῆρες ἐν κόσμῳ
Col 2:20b τί ὡς ζῶντες ἐν κόσμῳ δογματίζεσθε
1 Tim 3:16 ἐκηρύχθη ἐν ἔθνεσιν, ἐπιστεύθη ἐν κόσμῳ, ἀνελήμφθη ἐν δόξῃ
Given that 1 Tim 3.16 is in a highly structured "hymnic" section, it seems like the question of why it is anarthrous is intimately related with larger structural concerns of its immediate context. If it were to have an article here, it would be rather awkward.

Of course, this doesn't give the reason why the whole set is anarthrous. For example the next prep. phrase in the verse, ἐν δόξῃ, is articular 10x and anarthrous 9x in the NT. But, it seems like for this instance the explanation for why ἐν κόσμῳ is anarthrous would actually be found by explaining why ἐν σαρκί is anarthrous and then appealing to "poetic" style (or that the same reason holds for all 5 prepositional phrases in the "hymnic" section).
And the other two have very similar contexts - ὡς φωστῆρες ἐν κόσμῳ, ὡς ζῶντες ἐν κόσμῳ. Even more so if you include more of the texts: ἐν οἷς φαίνεσθε ὡς φωστῆρες ἐν κόσμῳ vs. ὡς ζῶντες ἐν κόσμῳ δογματίζεσθε
ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;
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MAubrey
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Re: ἐν (τῷ) κόσμῳ

Post by MAubrey »

May I make the suggestion that it could be a dialectal feature with also some spread across. We have similar patterns in English with preposition.

to/at/in/from [the] school
to/at/in/from [the] hospital (Canadian, British, & others)
to/at/in/from [the] jail

Also note English has a contrast version of this same-ish expression:

"on earth"
"in the world"

My books just got packed up for a move, so I can give you a reference, but Huddleston & Pullum (2002) has a discussion of a semantics of the phenomenon.
Mike Aubrey, Linguist
SIL International
Koine-Greek.com
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