From: clayton stirling bartholomew (c.s.bartholomew@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Tue Apr 25 2000 - 14:25:56 EDT
on 04/24/00 8:21 PM, Gordon Goltz wrote:
> Working on the Gospel Lesson for Easter 3, I am puzzled what to do with
> genomenoi in Luke 24.37.
Gordon,
These participles also have a discourse function above the level of the
paragraph. This will not be reflected in your translation but is worth some
attention none the less.
Luke 24:36-37
TAUTA DE AUTWN LALOUNTWN
AUTOS ESTH EN MESWi AUTWN
KAI LEGEI AUTOIS EIRHNH hUMIN
PTOHQENTES DE KAI EMFOBOI GENOMENOI
EDOKOUN PNEUMA QEWREIN
According to Levinsohn* the pre-positive participle (before the main verb)
serves one or two discourse functions. At the discourse level (above the
paragraph) the pre-positive participle indicates continuity at some level
with the preceding context. This continuity may include time, location,
participants, or topic. In the case where the participle is a genitive as we
see in Luke 24:36 the subject of the participle will typically be different
than the subject of the main verb. When the participle is nominative then
the subject of the participle will typically be the same as that of the main
verb as we see in Luke 24:37.
In this passage we see that our red GNT (UBS3 or 4) is divided between
Lk 24:35 and 24:36. If we take a close look at the previous context, the
journey to Emmaus, particularly the end of it verses 34-35 and then we look
at the participle and its arguments in verse 36 we will see that there is a
very close connection that spans the break in our GNT. The genitive
participle in v. 36 is used to mark a change in participant. That is Jesus
is re-introduced into the scene. Apart from this, the topic, location,
participants and time are all continuous with the scene in verses 34-35.
The nominative pre-positive participles in verse 37 also contribute to the
continuity since the subject of these participles is anaphoric, looking back
to the object of Jesus greeting in verse 36 and also back to the group of
participants in verse 34-35.
So what is the point of all this? Don't take the divisions in your GNT too
seriously. The reasons for breaking the text at certain places in the GNT
have a lot to do with the history of synoptic research** in the last several
hundred years.
Concluding remarks:
While making note of the syntactical function(s) of the pre-positive
participle we need to also be aware that they have one or more discourse
level functions. Another pragmatic/semantic function of these participles I
didn't mention above is to "background" the information in the participial
constituent relative to the information in the main verb and its arguments.
Levinsohn* considers this as the main purpose of participles. You will need
to read him to get the details on this.
--
Clayton Stirling Bartholomew
Three Tree Point
P.O. Box 255 Seahurst WA 98062
*Levinsohn, Stephen Discourse Features of New Testament Greek,
SIL 1992 chapter 12, PPS. 177ff.
** for more details on topic of divisions in the GNT see:
Dungan, David L. A history of the synoptic problem: the canon, the
text, the composition and the interpretation of the Gospels. Doubleday,
1999, Series: The Anchor Bible Reference Library.
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