From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Tue Jan 08 2002 - 11:23:24 EST
At 4:43 PM +0100 1/8/02, Iver Larsen wrote:
>I have a question about the following Greek text:
>
>Phil 1:27-18 hOTI STHKETE EN hENI PNEUMATI, MIAi YUCHi SUNAQLOUNTES THi
>PISTEI TOU EUAGGELIOU KAI MH PTUROMENOI EN MHDENI hUPO TWN ANTIKEIMENWN,
>hHTIS ESTIN AUTOIS ENDEIXIS APWLEIAS
>
>Does hHTIS refer back to the feminine PISTIS or can it possibly refer
>forward to ENDEIXIS?
While upon first overview the idea that hHTIS refers back to PISTEI appears
conceivable, the objection arise immediately to the very idea that the
faith or faithfulness of one person or group should itself be demonstrative
of another person's or group's perdition--I suppose there may be some to
whom such a notion doesn't seem objectionable, but I find it impossible to
take seriously. I think that hHTIS must rather, as Iver suggests in his
question, refer forward to ENDEIXIS. In affirming that, however, I think
we'd have to see an elliptical construction here, such that hHTIS is
attracted into or takes its number, gender and case from ENDEIXIS, its
predicate noun, but that it represents what grammatically ought rather to
be a hO TI (the neuter indefinite pronoun, not the conjunction) which would
have as its antecedent MH PTUROMENOI EN MHDENI hUPO TWN ANTIKEIMENWN, "not
letting yourselves be tripped up in any way by your opponents." That might
still make it look like the steadfastness (PISTIS) of the Philippians is
demonstrative of the perdition of their opponents, but it seems to me that
it's the combination implicit in the present participles MH PTUROMENOI and
ANTIKEIMENWN: the ongoing efforts of the opponents in the face of the
ongoing persistence of the Philippians in steadfastness.
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad@ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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