From: Iver Larsen (iver_larsen@sil.org)
Date: Thu Nov 29 2001 - 08:42:39 EST
> Harry:
>
> One of the things I was trying to point out in my previous posts
> (apparently unsuccessfully) is that you have Wallace exactly backwards.
> He argues AGAINST the majority of translations, i.e., those that omit
> the English article in their translation of TWi hAMARTWLWi. He treats
> this verse under the category of par excellence and translates "O God,
> be merciful to me, THE sinner" (emphasis mine). The other alternatives
> he offers are "simple identification," which also in this case requires
> the article to be translated (since this takes the tax collector to be
> comparing himself with the Pharisee), or possibly well-known, which
> would require the translation of the article as well. In fact, he quotes
> Robertson approvingly where he criticizes the Canterbury revisers of the
> KJV for omitting the article here (see p. 208). Here Robertson maintains
> that omission of the article in translation of TWi hAMARTWLWi is
> inaccurate. Again, note carefully what Wallace says about TWi hAMARTWLWi
> in Luke 18.13:
>
> "Here the article is either *par excellence* or simple identification
> [or, *possibly* well-known]. If it is simple identification, this
> tax-collector is recognizing the presence of the Pharisee and is
> distinguishing himself from him by implying that, as far as he knew, the
> Pharisee was THE righteous one (between the two of them) and he was THE
> sinner. But if the article is *par excellence*, then the man is
> declaring that he is the worst of all sinners (from his perspective).
> This seems to fit well with the spirit of his prayer, for only the
> Pharisee explicitly makes a comparison with the other person present"
> (p. 223, emphasis his).
>
> So what Wallace says "fits well" with the spirit of the man's prayer is
> par excellence. That, after all, is why he puts this verse in that
> category to begin with! And if this is the case, the article must be
> translated, as Wallace indeed does.
> =============
Excuse me for not having a copy of Wallace. My question is: Does he
recognize the use of the Greek article which corresponds to a relative
pronoun in English? I had a discussion with Moon Ryul-Sung about this back
in January on this list.
To get a background for Lk 18:13, I tried to search for anarthrous nouns -
including pronouns - followed by an article in the same case as opposed to
being followed by a relative pronoun in the same case. So, I am trying to
compare two constructions which would be something like "X who is Y" and "X
the Y".
I found lots of anarthrous nominative nouns and pronouns preceding the
article as in
Matt 19:28 hUMEIS hOI AKOLOUQHSANTES MOI you who have followed me
but not a single instance with the relative pronoun instead of the article.
For the accusative I found two instances of the relative:
John 7:28 hO PEMYAS ME hON hUMEIS OUK OIDATE
but here the relative hON refers to a different person than the ME. (I think
this is significant, so keep it in mind.)
I found only a couple examples with the accusative article as in:
Rom 2:27 KRINEI hH EK FUSEWS AKROBUSTIA TON NOMON TELOUSA SE TON DIA
GRAMMATOS KAI PERITOMHS PARABATHN NOMOU the by birth uncircumcised who keep
the law will judge you who are a transgressor of law while having the
written (law) and circumcision
Eph 1:19 EIS hUMAS TOUS PISTEUONTAS to us who believe
For the genitive, I found several examples with the relative where as above
the relative refers to a different person than the immediately preceding
(pro)noun, e.g:
Mrk 1:7 ERCETAI hO ISCUROTEPOS MOU OPISW MOU hOU OUK EIMI hIKANOS KUYAS
LUSAI TON hIMANTA
There were also some examples of the genitive article functioning as English
relative, e.g.
John 9:18 EFWNHSAN TOUS GONOUS AUTOU TOU ANABLEYANTOS they called the
parents of him who had regained sight
For the dative case I found no examples with the relative pronoun but
several with the article functioning as an English pronoun. e.g.
Luk 1:36 KAI hOUTOS MHN hEKTOS ESTIN AUTHi THi KALOUMENHi STEIRAi
to her who is called barren
Luk 6:24 OUAI hUMIN TOIS PLOUSIOIS woe to you who are rich
Luk 11:42 OUAI hUMIN TOIS FARISAIOIS woe to you who are Pharisees
Luk 12:4 LEGW DE hUMIN TOIS FILOIS MOU I say to you who are my friends
?Luk 18:13 hILASQHTI MOI TWi hAMARTWLWi have mercy on me who am a sinner
Eph 3:8 EMOI TWi ELACISTOTERWi PANTWN hAGIWN EDOQH hH CARIS hAUTH
To me who is/was the least of all the saints was given this grace
I have limited the search to anarthrous nouns and pronouns. If I had
included arthrous nouns I would have found many more examples. (For this,
people may look at the archives for January where I gave examples with
arthrous nouns.)
My point is that the article can tie a description to a preceding noun or
pronoun in what is called a rankshifting relationship. It corresponds to the
function of the English pronoun and in Greek it seems to replace a pronoun
in these constructions. The Greek pronoun appears to be limited to cases
like John 7:28 above where the relative pronoun refers to a different person
than the preceding personal pronoun. If and when the article function as
what we would call a relative pronoun it does not have the normal attributes
of the article, and to discuss it in terms of attributes of the article is
somewhat misleading IMO.
Iver Larsen
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