[B-Greek] Ephesians 1:22
John Sanders
john.franklin.sanders at gmail.com
Sat Mar 13 02:55:59 EST 2010
Much water has passed under the bridge for this thread, but if I may, I
would like to respond anyway. It is not that I have anything significant to
add, but rather that going through the exercise of explaining a Greek phrase
is in itself useful, at least for me. I will make my presentation slightly
different than what has been offered so far. That is, I will begin with the
first word in the sentence and continue in a linear fashion, attempting to
replicate how I attempt to read Greek.
The sentence: ...AUTON EDWKEN KEFALHN hUPER PANTA THi EKKLHSIAi.
AUTON is an ANTWUMIAI (antonym) referencing back to INSOU (see verse 17). I
see two roles that it plays in this phrase. One is the role as topic (also
referred to as theme, some may call this old information others perhaps that
it is emphatic). Japanese indicates the topic with a grammatical particle,
Greek and English do not (digression-well maybe, I suspect that the post
positive particles in a general sense indicate topic, for instance, the
particle DE indicates topic in the sense that the preceding word or phrase
is the topic on which the discourse is being continued with). It is just
position that indicates it being topic, if a topic is indicated at all. But
Greek does mark grammatically the PTWSIS (case). Here, ANTON is in the
AITIATIKH PTWSIS (accusative case). We have some general expectations of
what to expect from this case, the specific we will not know until the rest
of the phrase is given, but we do have a general expectation.
This brings us to the next word, EDWKEN. Before we continue, we should
spend some time with this word. DOUNAI, DIDONAI (to give, to be giving) has
some peculiarities that are not shared by most other verbs. Let me
reference H. W. Smyth, Greek Grammar, Textkit edition, section 1450a. “The
dative derives its name (ἡ δοτικη πτῶσις (H DOTIKH PTWSIS), casus datiuus)
from the use with διδόναι (DIDONAI) (1469).
Section 1469 reads in part, “Many verbs take the dative as the indirect
object together with an accusative as the direct object.”
As Elizabeth has pointed out, BDAG indicates that two nouns in AITIATIKH
PTWSIS (accusative case) are possible. (I would venture that one of these
two nouns will represent specific and the other a general or class, i.e., he
appointed her ambassador, I gave the photo as a memento, she gave the money
as a donation, etc.). One can potentially expect three complements to the
verb DOUNAI, DIDONAI: two in AITIATIKH PTWSIS and one in DOTIKH PTWSIS.
Returning back to the analysis, we have EDWKEN which gives us the subject,
AUTOS who is DOUNAI the object, AUTON. This is sufficient information to
answer the question TINA EDWKEN?
The next word is KEFALHN. This is also in the AITIATIKH PTWSIS. We should
not be surprised since we know that DOUNAI, DIDONAI can take two objects in
the AITIATIKH PTWSIS. hUPER PANTA construes with KEFALHN. This answers the
question TI EDWKEN?
DOTIKH PTWSIS can usually be thought of as consisting three general
subgroups, one set of prepositions will identify the locative subgroup,
another set of prepositions the instrumentative subgroup, and no
prepositions indicating the “true dative”, which some will call the indirect
object and others the recipient (in koine Greek). Since there is no
preposition with THi EKKLHSIAi and DOUNAI can potentially have a DOTIKH
PTWSIS, we can construe this as the third and DOTIKH complement to EDWKEN.
This answers the question TINI EDWKEN?
The verb DOUNAI, DIDONAI should, I think, be explained a little more
carefully than other verbs because of its potential three complements, that
is there are three dimensions, TINA, TI, and TINI that can identify what is
the result of DOUNAI, DIDONAI. This sentence is a beautiful sentence in
that regard, that is it has all three potential complements.
John Sanders
Suzhou, China
On Mon, Mar 8, 2010 at 10:29 AM, <rhutchin at aol.com> wrote:
>
> We read;
>
> ...KAI AUTON EDWKEN KEFALHN hUPER PANTA THi EKKLHSIAi.
>
> How do the parts of this fit together?
>
> Does KEFALHN hUPER PANTA modify AUTON or is it the object of EDWKEN?
>
> What is the purpose for THi EKKLHSIAi? Is it the object of EDWKEN?
>
> What idea is the writer trying to convey to the reader? The KJV
> translators added language to try to sort out what is being said but I get
> the impression that they were not sure what to do with THi EKKLHSIAi.
>
> Roger Hutchinson
>
>
>
>
> ---
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--
John Sanders
Suzhou, China
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