From: Rolf Furuli (furuli@online.no)
Date: Tue Dec 09 1997 - 10:26:30 EST
John Reece suggested the following to be discussed on b-greek:
Rolf
<I expected you would come through (as you did) with a very interesting
<response to the query about NEPE$ on the b-hebrew list. Your response to
<that again stimulates my interest to know your thoughts about a certain
<NT text. This time, I will ask it.
<The text is 1 Thessalonians 5:23. The question is, "How do you
<understand the senses of PNEUMA, YUCH, and SWMA in that context, taking
<into consideration the nearly redundant terms hOLOTELEIS and hOLOKLHRON,
<(which are translated in English versions as though only one of those
<<two words is in the text)? Particularly, do you understand this text to
be a valid basis for a tripartite interpretation of the nature of man?
<Many thanks for the reference to P. Cotterell and M. Turner, 1989,
<_Linguistics and Biblical Interpretation_. I will seek a copy from the
<library of my theological alma mater.
<This is a response to a thread on the b-hebrew list which I am sending
<<to you personally because my question is more appropriate to the b-greek
list, to which you can forward this if you think it appropriate.
Dear John,
I will try to avoid theology as much as possible, but regarding such
questions it will always be lurking in the background. The syntax of this
verse is important,i.e. we must take not of the relationship between plural
pronouns and singular nouns. The first clause is unproblematic. RSV
says:"May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly". The adjective
hOLOTELEIS is plural and corresponds to the plural hUMAS.
In the next clause THRHQEIH is the verb and the adjective hOLOKLHRON
belongs to the predicate. Both the verb and the adjective are singular, and
the meaning is "May be kept blameless (or "sound","complete")". What is the
subject? It ought to be something singular, and it is "your spirit and soul
and body", all three nouns being singular while the pronoun is plural.
What does this mean? The plural personal pronoun in the genitive case,
hUMWN, denotes all the individual members of the congregation, but the
singular PNEUMA, YUCH, and SWMA with the singular verb and adjective can
hardly refer to each member of the congregation, but is better taken in a
collective sense (1 Cor 12:12,13). The congregation is viewed as one
organism and the whish is that this "organism" must be kept blameless until
the PAROUSIA. The use of three parts may stress the wholeness of the
"organism"(cf Deut 6:4,5). If this is correct, the passage does not teach
that Paul saw man as a threefold substance different from the OT view of
man as a singular substance.
I would be very interested in classical or NT examples, pros and con, which
could illuminate the above use of singular versus plural words.
Regards
Rolf
Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo¬
furuli@online.no
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