Greek Particles in the New Testament: Linguistic and Exegetical Studies (New Testament Tools and Studies 3) PDF
Preview Greek Particles in the New Testament: Linguistic and Exegetical Studies (New Testament Tools and Studies 3)
NEW TESTAMENT TOOLS AND STUDIES EDITED BY BRUCE M. METZGER, Ph.D., D.D., L.H.D. Professor of New Testament Language and Literature Princeton Theological Seminary VOLUME III GRAND RAPIDS 3, MICHIGAN Wm. B. EERDMANS 1962 G R E EK PARTICLES IN T HE N EW TESTAMENT LINGUISTIC AND EXEGETICAL STUDIES BY M A R G A R ET E. THRALL, Ph.D. Assistant Lecturer in Hellenistic Greek The University College of North Wales, Bangor GRAND RAPIDS 3, MICHIGAN Wm. B. EERDMANS 1962 Copyright 1962 by E. J. Brill, Leiden, Netherlands. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or trans lated in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm or any other means without written permission from the publisher. PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS VI TABLE OF CONTENTS B. Individual Problems 67 1. Lk. xxii 42 and Mt. xxvi 39 67 2. Mt. xxvi 64 7° 3. I Cor. vii 21 7$ 4. II Cor. v 1 -10 82 Conclusion 96 Appendix 98 Index of Passages 103 PREFACE The term "particle" is capable of a fairly wide application. This study is in general confined to the paratactic conjunctions, to correlative particles such as μέν and τε, and to the adverbial particles expressing emphasis of one kind or another, such as γε and δή. The term may also be applied to the subordinating con junctions and to the negatives ού and μή, but these have been omitted, as their investigation would have demanded the con sideration of more extensive syntactical issues for which time and space were not available.1 The particles treated here, therefore, are the ones which are dealt with in Denniston's study of classical usage. There are a few additions, however. Although the particle πλήν occurs as an independent conjunction in the classical period, it is not mentioned in Denniston. It is included here because its development in the κοινή is of linguistic interest and because its interpretation in two verses in Matthew is important exegetically. Also, some new connecting particles appear in the κοινή, formed from other parts of speech. The New Testament particles are significant linguistically because they illustrate the usage of the κοινή, which differs in several ways from the classical idiom. The writers of the New Testament were not hampered in their manner of expression by the rigid adherence to classical models which characterizes many of the literary products of the Hellenistic period, and they are in some ways more useful than the papyri as a guide to the colloquial speech. Moreover there are various exegetical problems which may benefit from a more thorough investigation of the meaning of the particles in the verses concerned. Some scholars have claimed also that a wider exegetical interest attaches to some of the Marcan particles and that they are used throughout the Gospel in a rather artificial and arbitrary way to indicate psychological tension, allusion to the Old Testament, or the existence of a major turning- point in the narrative. These theories are on the whole more remarkable for their ingenuity than for their attention to linguistic 1 Furthermore, a competent monograph dealing with several of these words has been published recently; it is A. C. Moorhouse's Studies in the Greek Negatives, Cardiff, 1959. VII New Testament Tools and Studies III 2 VIII PREFACE detail, and they need to be carefully checked by means of strictly linguistic criteria. The purpose of this monograph is twofold. The linguistic section supplies a more comprehensive classification and illustration of κοινή usage of particles than has been so far available, and attempts to assess the significance of the linguistic processes involved and to determine their causes. In the exegetical section I have tried to apply more exact linguistic criteria to various hypotheses involving particles and in some cases to suggest a new interpretation of diffi cult passages based on the exegesis of particles they contain. I am indebted to my research supervisor, Professor C. F. D. Moule of Cambridge University, for a great deal of helpful criticism and advice. Μ. Ε. T. ABBREVIATIONS Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature; A Translation and Adap tation of Walter Bauer's Griechisch-Deutsches Wörterbuch zu den Schriften des Neuen Testaments und der übrigen urchristlichen Literatur by William F. Arndt and F. Wilbur Gingrich, Cambridge and Chicago, [1957]. Denn. J. D. Denniston, The Greek Particles, 2nd edition, Oxford, 1954. Mayser Edwin Mayser, Grammatik der griechischen Papyri aus der Ptole- mäerzeit, II, 3, Berlin and Leipzig, 1934. (Where other volumes of this grammar have been used they are specifically mentioned).
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