PAS is NORMALLY used in the predicative position and will then always mean
"all" in the plural or "every one" in the singular. In the attributive
position one may find it in expressions like TO PAN or TA PANTA, both of
which neuter expressions mean more or less the same thing: "the entirety."
I've never seen any instance of PAS indicating anything less than "all" or
"every." Now there are instances where PAS appears to be used to represent
Hebrew KOL in its sense of "any" that would more traditionally be expressed
in Greek with an indefinite TIS or a generalizing clause beginning in the
form hOSTIS AN + subjunctive. But I'm curious where the notion that PAS may
mean "most,but not all" comes from.
>Part of my interest comes from encountering the word recently in Phlps 1:13.
>Paul claims that his "bonds" -- DESMOUS -- are manifest EN hOLWi TWi
>PRAITORIWi
>KAI TOIS LOIPOIS PASIN, KAI TOUS PLEIONAS . . . . Just how far had the
>knowledge of Paul's bonds become known? In "all," or "most of" the
>remainder of
>what, or who?
In Philippians 1:13 Paul says that his imprisonment has become "manifest in
Christ" EN hOLWi TWi PRAITWRIWi KAI TOIS LOIPOIS PASIN. The "Praetorium"
will be the Roman provincial governor's headquarters (if the letter was
written in Ephesus, as I would think more likely) or the encampment of the
Roman imperial bodyguard in Rome (if the letter was written during Paul's
final imprisonment in Rome). In either case he is saying that knowledge of
his imprisonment as being "in Christ" extends throughout the Praetorium;
PASIN with TOIS LOIPOIS is indeed predicative, just as it would be if the
word order were PASIN TOIS LOIPOIS--and it must mean "and to all the rest,"
i.e. "to everyone else." To whom it refers has to be inferred from the
context. I would understand the context to mean that it refers to members
of the community of believers in Ephesus or Rome, depending on where one
understands this letter to have been written. That's what 1:14 seems to be
saying that most of the believers are evangelizing all the more vigorously
because they know of Paul's imprisonment. I think the natural sense here is
that Paul's imprisonment is a matter of general knowledge in the governor's
headquarters and among Christian believers in the city where Paul is
imprisoned,and I don't think that Paul is indicating general knowledge
extending beyond the city. What the historical truth is will depend upon
whether the letter is understood to have been written in Ephesus or in
Rome. I won't get into that question (I really don't think it can be
resolved in terms of the evidence of the Greek text itself), but at any
rate, the question Thomas has raised here can only be answered if one knows
to whom TOIS LOIPOIS PASIN refers, and I think we can only offer a
reasonable conjecture as to how extensive "everyone else" may be.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad@yancey.main.nc.us
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/