From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Thu Dec 09 1999 - 14:56:32 EST
This is perhaps a good time to reiterate one point about the "true"
genitive (what in my perversity I have learned to call the "pertinentive")
as opposed to the "ablative" and the "partitive": this is a structural case
that simply indicates that one substantive depends upon another
substantive; analytic grammarians have subdivided into numerous categories
to suit their own whims, fancies, and idiosyncratic categorization of the
numbers of ways in which any one substantive can relate to any other
substantive (including "subjective" and "objective" genitive).
As for QEOU SUNERGOI, whether you prefer to translate it as "God's
co-workers", "Co-workers with God", "Co-workers under God" is likely to say
a lot more about your own theological preferences than it can ever say
about the Greek. That is to say: I think the question you are asking about
really doesn't concern how we understand the Greek in the slightest;
rather, it concerns how a translator conceives of the relationship between
human beings and God. Greek grammar can't tell you the answer to that one.
At 2:25 PM -0500 12/9/99, Bret Hicks wrote:
>In 1 Corinthians 3:9 Paul says that he and Apollos were
>
>THEOU ... SUNERGOI
>
> This is translated y the KJV as "co-workers with God" and more
>ambigously by the NIV as "God's co-workers". My question regards the
>best way to understand the genitive THEOU. Is is "possesive" in nature,
>so that Paul and Apollos are co-laborers who both work together UNDER
>(are owned by) God? Or is it to be understood in the sense of the KJV
>that they are co-workers WITH God.
> As I understand it, the points in favor of co-workers under God are:
>
> 1) The remaining genitives in the verse are possessive in nature (a
>field/building owned by God)
> 2) With the possible exception of 1 Thessalonaisn 3:2 (which has
>significant textual variants), every other place Paul uses SUNERGOI it
>erefers to two humans who are co-workers.
> 3) The rest of the passage seems to be talking about he and Apollos
>being servants of God, not His co-workers.
>
> The points in favor of co-workers wih God are:
> 1) This would seem to be the best possible meaning of the phrase in
>1 Thessalonians 3:2 (assuming the correct reading is the NA26 and not
>the TR in this case)
>
> From what I have been able to discover, Gordon Fee and TDNT seem to
>prefer the idea of "under" God, while AT Robertson (Word Pictures) and
>Charles Hodge take the meaning to be "with" God. Additionally,
>commentators on 1 Thessalonians 3:2 consistently to seem to read the
>idea in 1 Cointhians 3:9 as being "with God" (perhaps duer to the
>influence of the KJV rendering?)
> The arguments in favor of "under" God seem more persuasive to me,
>but maybe I am missing something. Is there a reason to read this a
>"co-laborer with God"? Any comments would be appreciated!
>
>
>In Christ,
>
>
>Bret A. Hicks
>Pastor,
>Bay Ridge Christian Church
>
>
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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
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