From: Steven Lo Vullo (doulos@merr.com)
Date: Wed Nov 28 2001 - 17:53:24 EST
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On Wednesday, November 28, 2001, at 04:41 AM, Harry W. Jones wrote:
> Wallace of course said that sinner in Lk 18:13 would be in
> a class by himself but I don't think that using the definite
> article here would give the right sense of this verse. Better
> would be "a sinner of the worst kind". It seems to me that
> "the sinner" should be reserved for the Monadic case that
> Wallace spoke about in the next section. Of course, I could be
> wrong. But I don't think so.
I hate to press the issue, but I would like to make two points about the
above:
(1) A phrase like "a sinner of the worst kind" would not properly convey
the idea of par excellence, since many people could be described as *a*
sinner of the worst *kind*. "A sinner of the worst kind" is merely a
category in which many people could be included. It doesn't rule out
anyone else from being in a class by him/herself. In order to convey the
idea of par excellence, one would have to use a phrase such as "the
worst of all sinners." Only this type of phrase conveys the idea of
someone who is the *extreme* of a category, and therefore in a class by
him/herself, since only one person can be "the worst of all." There are
other sinners, but "the worst" sinner stands apart by him/herself.
(2) I think you have also misunderstood what Wallace means by "monadic."
It is one of a kind, period. Since there are many sinners, a sinner
cannot be one of a kind. A sinner is not unique. Note the distinction
Wallace makes between par excellence and monadic:
"1] The difference between the monadic article and the article *par
excellence* is that the monadic article points out a *unique* object,
while the article *par excellence* points out the *extreme* of a certain
category, thus, the one deserving the name more than any other. The
article *par excellence*, therefore, has a superlative idea. For
example, 'the sun' is monadic because there is only one sun. It is not
the best of many suns, but is the only one. In *reality*, it is in a
class by itself. But 'the Lord' is par excellence because there are many
lords. However, the article is used with the word to convey the idea
that, according to the speaker’s presented viewpoint, there is only one
Lord."
Clearly the tax collector does not think he is the only sinner in
existence!
=============
Steven Lo Vullo
Madison, WI
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