From: wes.williams@twcable.com
Date: Tue Jun 18 1996 - 14:00:00 EDT
Mark,
>>>As Dan Wallace points out in his forthcoming grammar, .... In order
for the two substantives to be considered as referring to the same
person in an article-substantive-kai-substantive construction, there
are three specific criterion which must be met:
1. Neither should be impersonal.
2. Neither should be plural.
3. Neither should be a proper name.<<<
It is of note that a thesis is being prepared to show the limitations
of Sharp's rule. It answers and inclludes points from Wallace's
original thesis. The author said to request a copy from
Apokrisis1@aol.com. It will be ready in about a month.
>> 1 Tim 6:13 is another type of article-noun-kai-noun
>> construction where the second noun is clearly a distinct
>> person from the first, although it fits 1, 2, and 3 above.
> This one seems to violate the 3rd restriction... is not XRISTOU
> IHSOU a proper name? Perhaps I missed something here? Please let
> me know if I am not following your point...
Sharp himself did not exclude the quasi proper names Khristou Iesou/
Kurios Khristou Iesou. So 1 Tim 6:13 remains an exception.
But bringing up quasi proper names truly does open up the subject.
Perhaps another criterion: "Neither should be a quasi proper name"
should be added. This would just about eliminate the Sharp debate
from the N.T., which would be wonderful. Let's follow the reasoning
to which your question leads.
If we wish to exclude quasi proper names, then we examine Paul's use
of "Soteros Iesou Khristou" as to whether or not it falls in the same
category of a quasi proper name. We find that it does. When
"Soteros Iesou Khristou" appears before kai, it has the article. When
it follows kai, EVEN IN NON-SHARP CONSTRUCTIONS, it LACKS the article.
Soteros by itself is one thing. But "Soteros Iesou Khristou" is quite
another.
It is this very point that causes some translators to reject Sharp's
rule at Titus 2:13 and 2 Pet 1:1 (beside the parallel contextual
constructions at Titus 1:4 and 2 Pet 1:2). I include the comments of
Ezra Abbot as one while commenting on Titus 2:13 in "The Authorship of
the Fourth Gospel and Other Critical Essays", Boston, 1888, pp.
439-457. On p. 452 of this work the following comments are found:
"Take an example from the New Testament. ... In the case before us
[Titus 2:13], the omission of the article before soteros seems to me
to present no difficulty, -- not because soteros is made sufficiently
definite by the addition of hemon (Winer), for, since God as well as
Christ is also called "our Savior," he doxa tou megalou Theou kai
soteros hemon, STANDING ALONE, would most naturally be understood of
one subject, namely, God, the Father; but the addition of Iesou
Khristou to soteros hemon changes the case entirely, restricting the
soteros hemon to a person or being who, according to Paul's HABITUAL
USE OF LANGUAGE, is distinguished from the person or being whom he
designates as ho theos, so that there was no need of the repetition of
the article to prevent ambiguity. "
He continues with 2 Thess. 1:12:
"So in 2 Thess. 2:12, the expression kata ten kharin tou Theou hemon
kai kuriou would naturally be understood of one subject, and the
article would be required before kuriou if two were intended; but the
simple addition of Iesou Khristou to kuriou makes the reference to the
two distinct subjects clear without the insertion of the article."
Therefore Mark, the exclusion of quasi proper names from Sharp's rule
would cause 2 Thess 1:12, 1 Tim 5:21, 1 Tim 6:13, 2 Tim 4:1, Jude 4 to
be excluded (Khristou Iesou; Kurios Khristou Iesou), and it would also
exclude Titus 2:13 and 2 Pet 1:1 (Soteros Iesou Khristou). And that
just about eliminates the Sharp's rule debate in the N.T! Frankly, I
think Sharp should have excluded quasi proper names from his rule
since they truly are definite references to distinct persons.
Sincerely and truly yours,
Wes
P.S. If Dan Wallace injects "antecedent probability" into his
grammar, I hope he will also address constructions with quasi proper
names with the probabililty equation so that we compare apples with
apples and the probability will not appear surprisingly large.
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