From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Tue Jan 30 1996 - 19:50:24 EST
On 1/30/96, RJWILLIA@samford.edu wrote:
> Philippians 1.28
> KAI MH PTUROMENOI EN MHDENI UPO TWN ANTIKEIMENWN, hHTIS ESTIN AUTOIS
> ENDEIXIS APOLEIAS, UMWN DE SWTHRIAS, KAI TOUTO APO QEOU
>
> To what does the KAI TOUTO APO QEOU refer? Can you provide the basic rule
> of grammar/syntax on which you base your decision so I don't have to continue
> beating my head against the wall?
I would understand the antecedent of TOUTO to be the entire preceding
sequence from KAI MH ... through hUMWN DE SWTHRIAS, although one might
perhaps just as reasonably make it refer only to the clause hHTIS ESTIN ...
SWTHRIAS, and an argument could also be made that it refers primarily to
hUMWN SWTHRIA. At any rate, it is the FACT that the Philippians have not
been deterred by their opponents that points to the perishing of the
opponents and salvation of the Philippians. I'd say that in the last clause
Paul is indicating the indication or demonstration is something that has
come from God. You might perhaps expect that you'd have hAUTH instead of
the neuter TOUTO in order to make clear the reference back to ENDEIXIS, but
I really think that with the TOUTO Paul wants to say the steadfast
resistance of the Philippian congregation to opponents is itself something
for which to thank God, all the more so in that it is clear evidence of who
is being saved and who is not. The only term I have ever heard used for
this sort of construction (the neuter pronoun TOUTO referring back to the
previous proposition) is "sentence appositive," although I'm not sure it's
the best conceivable term for it. I only know that I myself used to beat my
head against the wall at seeing this again and again in Aristotle: neuter
pronouns without neuter antecedent, usually referring to the preceding
proposition as an antecedent. You can of course supply a predicate such as
ESTIN or EGENETO to the phrase KAI TOUTO APO QEOU.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, USA 63130
(314) 935-4018
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwc@oui.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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