[b-greek] re: hOS in Romans 8:32

From: Frank Gee (frankrgee@outpost.net.au)
Date: Tue Mar 26 2002 - 05:38:24 EST

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<DIV>Dear Steven, In reply to your message of 26/O3/02 2:45PM, (qv
below), I was putting together a response with some of the same points
ably made by Iver Larsen (26/03/02 7:15PM), and became so immersed in
concordance searching that I neglected to push my SEND button - so he beat me
to it! Iver has helpfully pointed out that the translation offered by
BAGD for Romans 8:32 would have to be a rendition of  ... KAI TOU IDIOU
hUIOU  (and thus not a correct translation for the ... GE ... 
clause at all.)  Quite apart from the contradiction between their
translation and the functional description for GE at the head of their
article - no wonder you were confused! Rather than repeat anything
else already explained by Iver, let me just draw attention to something which
reinforces his comment about the GE indicating "emphasis to the [whole]
clause (or proposition) it is part of".  In SIL's BART  (Biblical
Analysis and Research Tool), the grammar tag categorising GE is QS, 
that is,  Sentential Particle.  This will encourage  us to look
for exegetical clues in the context, rather than applying some rule
depending upon proximity to one particular word in the particle's own
clause. Before I came upon BART's grammar-tag definition, I was positing
a new term of my own for GE, such as Conjunction Nuancer.  [I wondered
for a while whether it could be classed as an Adverb, but rejected this as
both lacking in precision, and as not fitting into the traditional definition
of Adverb as a modifier of verbs, adjectives or other adverbs.]  There
is only one thing which gives me pause before seriously coining this
definition of the function of GE.   That is the intrusion of the
word OFELON  between KAI and GE at the front of the fourth clause in I
Corinthians 4:8 -  KAI OFELON GE EBASILEUSATE.   (ALL the
other uses of  GE in GNT, including  its combinative forms such as
ARAGE and MENOUNGE, seem to show GE providing some nuance of meaning for the
conjunction(s) which it follows.) Unless the placement of the GE after OFELON
in I Cor. 4:8 is for reasons of euphony only, this admittedly single
exception to the prevailing pattern would seem to support the BART
"functionalist" definition. It seems to me that this is a case in point
where a Functionalist approach to grammatical analysis is more useful to us
than some of the traditional definitions of  words-functions, especially
for flexible, nuance-adding particles like GE. Applying such an
approach, we would see the GE as adding an emphatic nuance to the hOS clause
of which it is part.  This function of GE thus differentiates the
function of the relative clause from other functions it could have in other
contexts, such as simple coordination (ie adding another merely incidental
piece of information about the antecedent of hOS, or that function of a hOS
clause which distinguishes the antecedent from other possible members in a
class, which we could call the "Defining Relative Clause". We might see
its (GE)  function here as similar to a that of the clause-
or phrase-straddling combination OU MONON  ... ALLA KAI,  thus
producing a dynamic equivalent in this context to:   hO THEOS OU
MONON hUPER hHMWN (ESTIN)... ALLA KAI  TON IDION hUION hUPER hHMWN
PAREDWKEN. Hoping these observations may be of some interest to
you, with best wishes, Frank Gee   (Rev.) Old exegete,
novice student of Linguistics Jamberoo,  Australia ----- Original
Message ----- From: Steven Lo Vullo <<A
href="mailto:slovullo@mac.com">slovullo@mac.com</A>> </DIV>
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