Word order 2 Peter 1:1 τοῖς ἰσότιμον ἡμῖν λαχοῦσιν πίστιν

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Stephen Hughes
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Joined: February 26th, 2013, 7:12 am

Word order 2 Peter 1:1 τοῖς ἰσότιμον ἡμῖν λαχοῦσιν πίστιν

Post by Stephen Hughes »

Συμεὼν Πέτρος, δοῦλος καὶ ἀπόστολος Ἰησοῦ χριστοῦ, τοῖς ἰσότιμον ἡμῖν λαχοῦσιν πίστιν ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν καὶ σωτῆρος Ἰησοῦ χριστοῦ· 2 χάρις ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη πληθυνθείη ἐν ἐπιγνώσει τοῦ θεοῦ, καὶ Ἰησοῦ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν·
I find that the word order of τοῖς ἰσότιμον ἡμῖν λαχοῦσιν πίστιν is striking. I can't find where the forum has discussed it before.

At first glance, I take it as a mixed construction combining the epistolary formula - Συμεὼν Πέτρος (person A) ... τῷ/τοῖς (to person B) ... χαίρειν (salutation) - combined with the word-order of a balance of ἰσότιμον ἡμῖν with πίστιν over λαχοῦσιν.

Has this aspect of the verse been discussed before? Have other taken this as a mixed construction?

The verse has been discussed before; [B-Greek] FW: 2 Peter 1:1 EN as "by" or "in"
Γελᾷ δ' ὁ μωρός, κἄν τι μὴ γέλοιον ᾖ
(Menander, Γνῶμαι μονόστιχοι 108)
Stephen Carlson
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Re: Word order 2 Peter 1:1 τοῖς ἰσότιμον ἡμῖν λαχοῦσιν πίστι

Post by Stephen Carlson »

ἡμῖν is in the second position of its prosodic domain (note the orthographic comma after an apposition -- and the article does not count for position), where many prosodically weak words like to hang out. You see it again in the second verse, χάρις ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη, "grace and peace to you."
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
Melbourne, Australia
Stephen Hughes
Posts: 3323
Joined: February 26th, 2013, 7:12 am

Re: Word order 2 Peter 1:1 τοῖς ἰσότιμον ἡμῖν λαχοῦσιν πίστι

Post by Stephen Hughes »

To state the obvious, the authour has used an allowable word order for the finite verb forms and applied it to the participle construction. Perhaps he didn't see a clear enough distinction between finite and infinite and so gave himself too much freedom.
Γελᾷ δ' ὁ μωρός, κἄν τι μὴ γέλοιον ᾖ
(Menander, Γνῶμαι μονόστιχοι 108)
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