From: Randy Leedy (Rleedy@bju.edu)
Date: Thu Jul 05 2001 - 14:38:13 EDT
Mark,
Time is quickly getting away from me. Dr's. appointment, then a
surprise call from our campus art gallery to decipher some Greek on a
Byzantine icon, an unexpected voice mail that appears to require a
time-consuming call, etc. You know how it goes. But your sample
passage is an interesting one, and I've got to give it a shot. So here
goes. (By the way, be careful not to miss the "o" one key to the left
when you're typing "shot." The shock to the eye when proofreading will
be exceeded only by the relief that you DID proofread.)
Clay offered a similar passage from another epistle, regarding which
I commented that APOSTOLOS is an appositive rather than a predicate,
because it serves as an appendage to PAULOS, the assertion clearly
being the fact of his authorship of the epistle. The same would apply
to DOULOS here.
At this point, possibilities open up for some of the other words, as
you indicated. The simplest, but in my opinion not the best, is to see
a simple series of appositives:
PAULOS
DOULOS
KLHTOS
APOSTOLOS
AFWRISMENOS
The translation would be "Paul, a slave, a called one, an apostle,
one separated..."
Another possibility would be to subordinate the adjectives (taking
the ptcp. as adjectival) to APOSTOLOS, their most natural head word:
PAULOS
DOULOS
APOSTOLOS
KLHTOS
AFWRISMENOS
"Paul, a slave, a called apostle who has been separated"
Or AFWRISMENOS might be a third appositive:
PAULOS
DOULOS
APOSTOLOS
KLHTOS
AFWRISMENOS
"Paul, a slave, a called apostle, one separated..."
Or KLHTOS might be appositive with AFWRISMENOS adjectival:
PAULOS
DOULOS
KLHTOS
APOSTOLOS
AFWRISMENOS
"Paul, a slave, a called one, an apostle separated..."
However, I don't think any of these commends itself as best. KLHTOS
is an adjective built on a verb stem (KLH) with a passive sense, and
KALEW in the passive often functions as a copula, completed by a
predicate nominative. (e.g. AUTOI hUIOI QEOU KLHQHSONTAI; Mt. 5:9).
APOSTOLOS makes the best sense to me taken as a predicate after this
copula-like word: "called (to be) an apostle." It is not the MAIN
predicate of the sentence, but it functions as a predicate in a
construction that is embedded in the expansion of the main subject.
The other nominatives fit well into the context as appositives to
PAULOS. The sentence transitions from subject to predicate way down in
v. 7, vv. 1-6 being a rather expansive naming of the subject,
including digression upon digression: "gospel" occasioning the first,
"Son" occasioning the second, and "our Lord Jesus Christ" occasioning
the third. That's why I would not take ANY of these nominatives as the
MAIN predicate, as though Paul's MAIN thought in this sentence is
"Paul is a slave," etc.
So I read it like this (the forward slash indicates a predicate
relation)
PAULOS
DOULOS
KLHTOS \ APOSTOLOS
AFWRISMENOS
"Paul, a slave, one called (as) an apostle, one separated..."
A variation would be to subordinate AFWRISMENOS under APOSTOLOS:
"Paul, a slave, one called (as) an apostle who has been
separated..."
At this point I must acknowledge that this passage presents another
question beyond what Clay and I discussed, because among the
possibilities considered above is that of yet a third relationship
between two nominatives: the second is an adjectival modifier of the
first. Perhaps Clay has already got this function worked into his
model and didn't need to discuss it; if not, Clay, it would seem to me
that your model needs to included it somewhere. For me the difference
between attribute and appositive is harder to identify than that
between either of those and the predicate. My understanding is that,
bascially, the attributive relationship specifies a quality while the
appositive introduces an alternative designation. An appositive, then,
should be a noun. But since adjectives can function as nouns, it's
hard to tell whether to take an adjective as a true attribute or as a
substantive specifying an alternative designation. Is Paul saying that
he is "an apostle who has been separated" (attributive), or that he is
"an apostle, that is, one who has been separated" (appositional).
To me the latter is preferable, but for this distinction I cannot
find as clearly objective a basis as I think I can see for the
distinction between predicate on the one hand and either of these on
the other.
Time's up. You probably didn't need and maybe didn't even want all
this verbiage. But there it is; hope it's worth something to somebody.
I know it was helpful to me to try to think it through as far as I'm
capable of doing.
Blessings! (Acts 3:26)
Randy Leedy
Bob Jones University
RLeedy@bju.edu
>>> "Mark Wilson" <emory2oo2@hotmail.com> 07/05/01 01:49PM >>>
Randy:
You wrote:
-----
>So there is just one basis for distinguishing between the two:
>whether the context demands that the second nominative express the
>clause's assertion, or that it express an appendage to the first
>nominative regarding which the clause makes some other assertion.
The
>presence or absence of an explicit copula becomes irrelevant.
----
Romans 1:1a
PAULOS DOULOS IHSOU CRISTOU KLHTOS APOSTOLOS...
Using your revised thinking on the Apposition/Predicate,
how would you translate this concatenate of Nominatives?
And, what would you consider to be an invalid translation?
Paul, servant of Jesus Christ, chosen, apostle...
Paul, servant of JC, [who is a] chosen apostle...
Paul, servant of JC, chosen [to be] an apostle...
etc...
Thanks,
Mark Wilson
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