[B-Greek] SUGKEKERASMENOUS in Hebrews 4:2

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Tue Sep 2 07:11:57 EDT 2008


On Sep 2, 2008, at 4:42 AM, Leonard Jayawardena wrote:

> According to the post linked to by Carl Conrad, BDAG understands THi  
> TOIS AKOUSASIN as "those who listened in faith," making TOIS  
> AKOUSASIN the dative complement of SUGKEKERASMENOUS and THi PISTEI  
> dependent on THi TOIS AKOUSASIN.
>
> I think the BDAG interpretation of this construction dovetails  
> neatly with hOI PISTEUSANTES of the following verse (v. 3) and so  
> derives additional support for itself.
>
> Verse 3 reads, EISERCOMEQA GAR EIS [THN] KATAPAUSIN hOI  
> PISTEUSANTES....
>
> In the view of the writer of Hebrews, those among the children of  
> Israel who believed that God would fulfill his promise of giving  
> them rest in the land of Canaan entered it (except Moses, who was  
> disqualified for another reason). They were the OT type of those  
> Christians who believed the gospel when it was preached to them (hOI  
> PISTEUSANTES of v. 3) and so "are entering" (EISERCOMEQA) their  
> rest. Therefore THi TOIS AKOUSASIN in v.2, i.e., "those who heard  
> with faith" and so entered the promised rest under Joshua,  
> correspond to and are the OT type of hOI PISTEUSANTES in v. 3, who  
> are "are entering" their rest. hOI PISTEUSANTES points to "with  
> those heard with faith" as being the correct meaning of THi TOIS  
> AKOUSASIN.
>
> Charles Conrad's interpretation "they refused to join in faith with  
> those who had heeded the proclamation" (found in the post linked to)  
> does not seem to provide a neat parallel to hOI PISTEUSANTES in v. 3.

A bit of confusion here, first regarding my name: my great-grandfather  
Carl Conrad changed his first name to "Charles" when he immigrated to  
the U.S. in the 1850's, but subsequent generations of my family have  
reverted to the older German name and spelling, "Carl."

Then there's the confusion of the slightly misquoted text of Heb 4:2:  
the text reads not THi TOIS AKOUSASIN but THi PISTEI TOIS AKOUSASIN.

2 καὶ γάρ ἐσμεν εὐηγγελισμένοι  
καθάπερ κἀκεῖνοι· ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ  
ὠφέλησεν ὁ λόγος τῆς ἀκοῆς  
ἐκείνους μὴ συγκεκερασμένους τῇ  
πίστει τοῖς ἀκούσασιν.
2 KAI GAR ESMEN EUHGGELISMENOI KAQAPER KAKEINOI; ALL' OUK WFELHSEN hO  
LOGOS THS AKOHS EKEINOUS MH SUGKEKERASMENOUS THi PISTEI TOIS AKOUSASIN.

Then there's the confusion about what BDAG offers as an interpretation  
of ALL' OUK WFELHSEN ... TOIS AKOUSASIN. BDAG Englishes this as "the  
word that they heard did not benefit those who were not united with  
those who listened in faith." And it was Mark Lama, who initiated the  
thread in which I was responding back in 2003 -- not I -- who cited  
BDAG. My own current understanding of this difficult text is that THi  
PISTEI should be understood as a dative of respect and construed with  
SUGKEKERASMENOIS rather than with TOIS AKOUSASIN. Thus I would English  
verse 2 thus: "For we had the gospel proclaimed to us just as they did  
-- but the proclamation which they heard did THEM no good -- for the  
reason that they did not join in faith with those who had HEEDED (the  
proclamation)."

Now it may be that THi PISTEI could construe as well with TOIS  
AKOUSASIN: "those who heard (the message) in faith." That is, in fact,  
the way NET Englishes the verse, otherwise along the same lines as my  
interpretation of SUGKEKERASMENOIS as middle: "2 For we had good news  
proclaimed to us just as they did. But the message they heard did them  
no good, since they did not join in with those who heard it in faith."

Whether one construes THi PISTEI with SUGKEKERASMENOIS or with  
AKOUSASIN is perhaps not really so significant, since it must be  
understood with both (APO KOINOU): "those who joined with the ones  
having heard in faith" -- i.e. the ones who responded to the message  
with faith, the ones who believed the proclamation -- joined IN BELIEF  
the ones who had heard.

I had hoped to avoid lengthy repetition of the 2003 thread, but  
Leonard has referred to it and somewhat misconstrued who said what in  
that thread, so let me repeat my own response -- no more than what I  
myself wrote --  from the September 24, 2003 message:
=============
CWC 2003.09.24: "I'm now inclining (perhaps not yet quite fully  
"inclined"?) towards a different understanding of the phrase MH  
SUGKEKERASMENOUS THi PISTEI TOIS AKOUSASIN, one hinted at by our  
recent discussions of John 3:36 and distinctive ways in which PISTEUW,  
APEIQEW, AKOUW are used in GNT and LXX to refer to "heeding" (APEIQEW  
to failure to heed) the gospel proclamation. The other factor entering  
into my fresh perspective is my readiness now to think that  
SUGKEKERASMENOUS is middle rather than passive: that is to say, those  
whom the gospel message "the word which they heard" did no good,  
"failed to join in commitment with those who had given heed to it."  
This may turn out to be as unsatisfactory as other attempts to resolve  
the problems of this passage, but at least it makes better sense of  
the word-order of the two datives following upon the participle--and  
also, I dare say, of the position of the participial phrase FOLLOWING  
the clause OUK WFELHSEN hO LOGOS THS AKOHS EKEINOUS.
	"On this view, (a) the participial phrase is EXPLANATORY of that  
clause ("the word they heard didn't do them any good") and thus  
functions as would a GAR clause clarifying the assertion about the  
failure of the gospel proclamation in their case; (b) MH  
SUGKEKERASMENOUS, understood as a middle-voice verb implying (in this  
instance, at least) deliberate decision on the part of "them" ("they  
REFUSED to join in faith with those who had heeded the proclamation")  
allows for a more intelligible accounting for the two datives, though  
both are construed with the participle: THi PISTEI will be a dative of  
"reference" or "respect" while TOIS AKOUSASIN will be an old-fashioned  
"comitative" or "sociative" dative dependent upon the SUN- prefix of  
the participle.
	"This account of the participial phrase and the two datives,  
including its implicit notion that AKOUW/AKOH in our verse carriees  
the broader sense of "heeding" or "commitment"--i.e. PISTIS, is  
confirmed, I think, by consideration of the ones referred to as  
EKEINOI; they are characterized at the end of the preceding chapter  
(Heb 3:18-19) thus: 3:18 TISIN DE WMOSEN MH EISELEUSESQAI EIS THN  
KATAPAUSIN AUTOU EI MH TOIS APEIQHSASIN? 19 KAI BLEPOMEN hOTI OUK  
HDUNHQHSAN EISELQEIN DI' APISTIAN. And note, by the way, the implicit  
parallelism of APEIQHSASIN and DI' APISTIAN. "

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)






More information about the B-Greek mailing list