cwconrad wrote:Stephen Hughes wrote: ... the grammar of this sentence?
I'd assume an implicit verb like γέγραπται here; subject is ὁ ἀσπασμὸς, τῇ ἐμῇ χειρὶ Παύλου qualifies the implicit verb γέγραπται.
ἀσπασμὸς / ἀσπαζεσθαι serves two functions - the " <your cousins all> say a (big) hello" function and the "hugs and kisses" function - within the composition of letters, (for which we use different words and structures in English). This ὁ ἀσπασμὸς, τῇ ἐμῇ χειρὶ Παύλου is one of the "hugs and kisses" uses.
My question is perhaps really about whether, from the wording, there any hint as to how much of the phrase was written by the actual man Paul himself? How much of the phrase do you think was written by Paul ?
For my part, I think Paul just made his mark, and I think that the genitive for Παύλου is not related to the grammar of the passage, but it is genitive to describe Paul's mark, ie it describes the circumstances in which it was written. That is to say, that if Paul wrote it, it would be Παῦλος, but because he didn't, what mark he did make is described as Paul's. In Philemon 19, however, I think he writes the whole phrase, ἐγὼ Παῦλος ἔγραψα τῇ ἐμῇ χειρί, ἐγὼ ἀποτίσω ("I will repay", the wording of
a legal document (with a connotation like, "show this letter to a magistrate if you like"), rather than a personal promise (not a wishy-washy, "you know that I'm a reliable person")).
Of course it is a bit different, but in the papyi, when a notary public witnesses somebody testifying that the contents of a document are true and then they sign, the names of the undersigned are in the nominative. In the following extract from one papyrus, there are examples of someone literate who testifies and signs, and someone testifies but is illiterate (ὡς means "about", "approximately" and
οὐλή followed by a dative of the place, is a "scar"):
BGU 2 526, 23-26 and 39-42 wrote:ὑπογραφεῖς τοῦ
μὲν ὁμολ(ογοῦντος) Ἀ[πο]λλόνιος Πανεσνέως
25ὡ(ς) (ἐτῶν) κ̣α οὐλὴ χιρὶ (ie χειρὶ) ἀριστ(ερᾷ) (hand 2) καὶ Λεονίδης
Ζωίλου ὡ(ς) (ἐτῶν) κδ οὐλ(ὴ) μετόπωι(ie μετώπωι with iota adscript) ἐγ (ie ἐκ) δεξ(ιῶν).
...
(hand 2) Ἁκῶρις Ἁκώριος
40γέγοναι εἴς μαι (ie με) ἡ ὁμολ(ογία) κα[θ]ὼς πρόκιται (ie πρόκειται).
ἔγρ(αψεν) ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ Λεονίδης Ζωίλου διὰ τὸ
μὴ εἰδέναι αὐτὸ[ν γράμματα].
There is (later) evidence for both the possessive pronoun and the possessive adjective in this regard:
P.Flor. 3 296, 57 wrote:ὁ ἀσπασμός μου
SB 20 14626, 29 wrote:ὁ ἐ[μὸς] ἀσπασμὸς