Re: Two more Col. participles

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Thu Jun 08 2000 - 21:00:41 EDT


At 5:23 PM -0500 6/8/00, Harold R. Holmyard III wrote:
>Dear Mark,
> You write:
>
>>Col. 3:16
>
>>hO LOGOS TOU CRISTOU ENOIKEITW EN hUMIN PLOUSIWS EN PASHi SOFIAi
>DIDASKONTES KAI NOUQETOUNTES hEAUTOUS
>
>>I am going through this workbook by Dr. Grassmick on Colossians. He
>>presents a sentence diagram of the entire epistle.
>
>>My question is the two participles. The diagram has both of them modifying
>>hUMIN, which I assume must function Adjectivally. Would it be equally
>>likely that these participles modify ENOUKEITW, and function Adverbially?
>
>>If it must be Adjectivally, does the hEAUTOUS determine this?
>
>The participles are plural and so must modify something plural. The verb
>ENOIKEITW is singular, as is its subject LOGOS. So the participles must
>modify hUMIN. They cannot modify hEAUTOUS because that word is the object
>of the participles.

Something more needs to be said about this; it's an instance of what is
sometimes called a CONSTRUCTIO AD SENSUM, which is to say, a construction
wherein the function of word-forms employed does not conform to ordinary
grammatical rules but rather to an implicit understanding of the logical
relationship of the elements. So here the participles DIDASKONTES and
NOUQETOUNTES ought perhaps to be dative plurals DIDASKOUSI(N) KAI
NOUQETOUSI(N) to agree with hUMIN. Perhaps these participles are meant to
be auxiliary imperatives along with ENOIKEITW: "The Word should dwell in
you and you should teach and advise each other"; alternatively the
participles are coordinated with that imperative: The Word should dwell in
you as you teach and admonish each other." In fact, however, the imperative
takes an impersonal 3d sg. form ENOIKEITW and the subject is hO LOGOS TOU
CRISTOU. Nevertheless, logically the writer seems to be saying "You (pl.)
should have the Word of Christ dwelling in you and you should teach and
admonish each other (or as you teach and admonish each other)." That is to
say, the participles are nominative plural agreeing with an implicit hUMEIS.

What has probably given rise to this "constructio ad sensum" is the seeming
necessity to make "The Word of Christ" the subject of the impersonal 3d p.
imperative. It would have been somewhat awkward to have used a MP
imperative like ENOIKEISQE EN hEAUTOIS TON LOGON TOU CRISTOU, "you should
have the word of Christ dwell within yourselves (as you teach and admonish
each other)." That could have been done but it must have seemed
awkward--and yet the participles are in the nominative as if that
construction HAD BEEN used.

--

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad@ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/

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