From: Mary Pendergraft (pender@wfu.edu)
Date: Wed Sep 08 1999 - 12:09:23 EDT
I have a few comments on basic grammar, which may help clarify a few of your ideas,
Mike.
Mike Sangrey wrote:
> Carl W. Conrad said:
> > I agree that we have an attributive phrase in THi TOU hENOS ANQRWPOU
> > IHSOU CRISTOU, an attributive phrase that is intended to pinpoint the
> > precise nature of the grace to which he is referring. I think that
> > the distinctive force of the article in this kind of attributive
> > phrase is intensely demonstrative and practically substantival
> > (I don't think it hurts to remember that hO/hH/TO was originally
> > a demonstrative and in some functions in later Greek continues to
> > be one) and the phrase is like an appositive: "grace--THAT (grace)
> > of the one man Jesus Christ ..."
>
> At the risk of being a little child playing in this muddy puddle, I'd
> like to ask a question. I'll state what I'm thinking before asking
> whether it makes any sense in the hopes that those who are playing
> in this puddle with me will point out any murkiness in my thinking.
> I'm trying to clarify my understanding of hO/hH/TO.
>
> Rom. 5:15 starts with:
> ALL' OUC hWS
> TO PARAPTWMA,
> hOUTWS KAI
> TO CARISMA;
>
> This appears to me to be setting in place the topic which Paul is
> about to elucidate. He seems to be saying, "I'm going to talk about
> two things, on the one side 'sin' on the other side 'grace' and these
> are related by stark contrast.
>
I just want to point out the negation at the beginning of this phrase. Paul _is_
talking about sin and grace, but here, about the disproportion between them: just a
moment later, of course, we get POLLWi MALLON "by much more"
>
> Then we have:
> EI GAR TWi TOU hENOS PARAPTWMATI hOI POLLOI APEQANON,
>
> where the TWi appears to me to be a demonstrative pronoun as opposed
> to thinking that TWi TOU hENOS PARAPTWMATI is an attributive phrase.
> I note TWi is in the dative so I'd like to think of this as something
> like "'To' or 'for' this one" where 'one' refers back to PARAPTWMA
> at the beginning of the verse. I would render it into English as
>
> "For if in reference to this sin, this single sin, the many perished".
>
Why not dative of means: "through the sin...."?
and TOU hENOS is a genitive in attributive position, "through the sin of one man"
>
> I understand that it appears more natural to think of the TWi...
> PARAPTWMATI as an attributive phrase, but if we think of TWi as
> referring back to the earlier PARATWMA we have set up a somewhat
> easy explanation for the next clause where the 'article', 'article',
> 'phrase' construction is used again.
>
This isn't clear to me. I do think the nouns PARAPTWMA(TI) are related in sense, but
not grammatically.
>
> POLLWi MALLON hH CARIS TOU QEOU KAI hH DWREA EN CARITI
> THi TOU hENOS ANQRWPOU IHSOUU XRISTOU EIS TOUS POLLOUS EPERISSEUSEN.
>
> Here, in the context of CARITI we have this THi. Instead of trying
> to think of this as an attributive phrase, why can't we say that
> THi refers back to CARISMA as a demonstrative pronoun--just as I've
> explained above with TWi. Rendering into English I have,
>
> "much more the grace of God and the gift by grace; in reference to
> this grace, this grace of the single man Jesus Christ, it abounded
> unto the many."
>
> Also, as Paul gets further away from the statement of his topic, he
> uses constructions to keep in force the structure of his argument.
> Namely, he uses TO MEN..., TO DE in verse 16; so we do have in this
> context the notion of "the one..., the other..."
>
> It appears to me that the strongest argument against what I've
> said is that THi is feminine and CARISMA is neuter. Could I argue
> gender attraction to CARITI so Paul would be clear and still keep
> THi referring back to CARISMA? Does that make sense?
You've put your finger right on the problem: It would be only natural to understand
together a dative feminine singular article following a dative feminine singular
noun. Again, the nouns XARIS and XARISMA are related in sense but not in grammar.
>
Mary
Mary Pendergraft
Associate Professor of Classical Languages
Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem NC 27109
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