From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Tue Apr 18 2000 - 07:05:05 EDT
Morphologically there is no hindrance to PNEUMA being an accusative form,
since it is neuter; the more important point is rather syntax: the verb
EIMI is intransitive and doesn't take an object. Bill will speak for
himself, of course, but the idea dies hard that Greek doesn't determine
syntactical function by word-order--i.e., whether a noun precedes or
follows a verb, even if the verb is intransitive. And Bill's example,
"...[He] was not yet spirit," seems to indicate that he means "predicate
nominative" rather than "object." This seems fundamentally improbable--that
the subject in such a construction should be implicit and the predicate
word be explicit; the reverse is more common, as in EGW EIMI with the
sense, "I am [he]." And yet, improbable though I think it is, I don't know
that we can rule out Bill's suggestion altogether by any syntactic rule or
logic, although we say that an existential EIMI normally precedes its
subject (and in this instance we would expect the governing adverb OUPW to
precede HN--so that OUPW HN PNEUMA is pretty much standard Greek word order
for "There was not yet Spirit."
But, playing the DA role, I might mention John 1:9 HN TO FWS TO ALHQINON,
hO FWTIZEI PANTA ANQRWPON, ERCOMENON EIS TON KOSMON. I believe that most
editors and readers now understand TO FWS TO ALHQINON as the subject of HN
ERCOMENON, a periphrastic imperfect, but we should remember that this verse
was understood and translated in the KJV with "He" = John the Baptist, as
implicit subject of HN and TO FWS TO ALHQINON as the predicate nominative
(and ERCOMENON EIS TON KOSMON as an anarthrous attributive participle to be
construed with ANQRWPON ("which lightens every man that cometh into the
world." Moreover Johannine theology would seem to understand the Spirit as
given by Jesus to be Jesus himself in a new form--ALLOS PARAKLHTOS, with
the implicit assumption that Jesus himself was a PARAKLHTOS. That would be
consistent with Bill's suggested interpretation of 7:39 as "... for [He}
was not yet Spirit." Mind you, I don't myself find this a cogent or likely
understanding of OUPW GAR HN PNEUMA--I do think PNEUMA here is the subject
of HN--but I'm not absolutely sure either that it COULDN'T be a predicate
nominative.
At 8:48 PM -0500 4/17/00, Paul Schmehl wrote:
>OUPW GAR hHN PNEUMA
>
>PNEUMA here is in the nominative case, so it would be the subject, not
>the object.
>
>pauls@utdallas.edu (Paul Schmehl)
>Technical Support Services Manager
>http://www.utdallas.edu/~pauls/
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Bill Ross" <wross@farmerstel.com>
>To: "Biblical Greek" <b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
>Cc: "'Bible Translation'" <BibleTranslation@listbot.com>
>Sent: Monday, April 17, 2000 8:27 AM
>Subject: RE: John 7:39
>
>
>> Further question:
>>
>> Am I correct that gramatically, PNEUMA could be either the subject
>or the
>> object? ie:
>>
>> "...spirit was not yet..."
>>
>> or
>>
>> "...[He] was not yet spirit"
>>
>> (I am not seeking either interpretation, only what is compelling in
>the
>> grammar).
>>
>> Bill Ross
>>
>>
>> ---
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>
>
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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 WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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