From: Wes C. Williams (71414.3647@compuserve.com)
Date: Fri Jan 19 1996 - 01:05:25 EST
Stephen,
You wrote:
>> I understand that anarthrous nouns in Greek can be used qualitatively,
but I'm having a hard time finding examples of a qualitative QEOS being
used in John (for now, I wish to avoid the question of Jn1:1).
Is Jn1:12 (TEKNA QEOU -- "children of God") such an example?
Or, what about v13 (hOI OUK EC hAIMATWN ... ALL EK QEOU EGENNHQHSAN --
"who were born not of blood ... but of God")? <<
Genitive constructions like you cite tend to be qualitative by their nature.
However, there are two examples in John's writings where he uses theos that
parallels the construction in John 1:1 (as you request, I'll avoid that for
now). The construction we seek is a predicate anarthrous nominative theos
preceeding a copulative verb. Harner (JBL 1973) says this tends to be
qualitative, although there are many examples where this is not true, as he
himself admitted.
The first is in John 8:54:
(Words in all caps indicate plural)
(Joh 8:54) It is my Father that glorifies me, he who YOU say is YOUR God;
... qeos hvmwn estin.
Although anarthrous, it has an pronomial modifier associated with it which
limits its scope down to a single member of the theos class; namely, the one God
whom the Jews claimed to worship. So, we might say that this theos refers
specifically to Jesus' Father, as he himself stated in the verse. With the
pronomial modifier, the theos here appears to be definite, although anarthrous
(once again, due largely to the restrictive pronoun).
Qualitative? To paraphrase: 'He who YOU say is one who has the character or
nature of a god;'. Perhaps. It does not appear to me to be prominent. On the
other hand, here is an argument for its qualitativeness, which I quote from
another source in a similar discussion:
Why does the Greek have the predicate in the last, equative clause at John
8:54 as an anarthrous predicate preceding its copulative? Jesus is thereby
giving emphasis to a relationship which the Jews say is true of the Father:
'You Jews say that my Father is "your God".' The Jews, then, were saying, in
effect, 'The true God is God known only among us Jews.' Jesus denied that the
Jews owned a fine relationship with his Father, the only true God: "And yet
you have not known him."
And John 10:34:
(Joh 10:34) "Is it not written in your Law, 'I said: "YOU are gods"'?
... Qeoi este
This also is a predicate nominative anarthrous theos (plural) preceeding the
copulative verb. Here it highlights more than one who belong to the theos
category. ( Of course, it was not polytheism that the Jews recognized many in
the theos category. They worshipped only one Almighty God. These other "qeoi"
were ones deserving of reverence and respect due to their position of authority.
see BAG; theos; 4 and 4a. Also Psalms 8:5 - Hebrews 2:7 where the LXX
translators translated the Hebrew elohim, or "gods", as "angels", which Paul
cited in Hebrews 2:7.).
Qualitative? To paraphrase: 'I said: "You are ones who have the character or
nature of a god?". It seems to me to have qualitative emphasis since the
statement is true in terms of authority over people.
I hope the two specific examples help.
Sincerely,
Wes Williams
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