From: Larry Swain (swainl@rocky.edu)
Date: Sat Jul 04 1998 - 01:55:13 EDT
I will answer your third question last-it is in the accusative because it
is the "object" of DEI-MUST, should, it is necessary. So a literal
translation would be: It is necessary (DEI) (in English we have to supply
a that, or other conjunction, but this is not a subordinate
clause)<i>that<i> the one approaching (PROSERCOMENON) God (TWi QEWi)TO
BELIEVE THAT (HOTI-which is the subordinating conjunction)He is, and he
becomes the rewarder......
Which brings us to your first two questions. The first regarding your
translation-GRAMMATICALLY speaking the HOTI....KAI sets both clauses as
equal in weight. However, the nuance of Greek is that what comes first in
the sentence has the most emphasis and what comes last has more emphasis
than the middle. But that nuance is open to question and shouldn't have a
lot of weight put on it. LOGICALLY, it would seem that the latter follows
from the former. Anyway, the point is that GRAMMATICALLY one can not
really justify a translation where the latter is the result of the former.
And hopefully that addresses your question about the commentators-the one
is discussing the grammar of the passage, the other is talking of the
emphasis one idea receives because of primacy of place-and the latter idea
links into the catalog of faithful which follows-they received reward
because they believed He Is.
Hope that helps.
Larry Swain
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