Why is this article causing me troubles

How do I work out the meaning of a Greek text? How can I best understand the forms and vocabulary in this particular text?
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John Christof
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Joined: July 18th, 2013, 12:05 pm

Why is this article causing me troubles

Post by John Christof »

Hello, I am having difficulties with the article in the following line of Titus 3,5:

οὐκ ἐξ ἔργων τῶν ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ

What does τῶν refer to or why does it follow and not preceed ἔργων? Is this an ellipsis - but what is the missing word and how would that be translated?
Here is the full sentence:

ὅτε δὲ ἡ χρηστότης καὶ ἡ φιλανθρωπία ἐπεφάνη
τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν θεοῦ,
οὐκ ἐξ ἔργων τῶν ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ
ἃ ἐποιήσαμεν ἡμεῖς
ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὸ αὐτοῦ ἔλεος
ἔσωσεν ἡμᾶς διὰ λουτροῦ παλιγγενεσίας
καὶ ἀνακαινώσεως πνεύματος ἁγίου,
οὗ ἐξέχεεν ἐφ’ ἡμᾶς πλουσίως
διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν,
ἵνα δικαιωθέντες τῇ ἐκείνου χάριτι
κληρονόμοι γενηθῶμεν κατ’ ἐλπίδα ζωῆς αἰωνίου.

Any help is much appreciated, thank you.
John
Scott Lawson
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Re: Why is this article causing me troubles

Post by Scott Lawson »

John Christof wrote:What does τῶν refer to or why does it follow and not preceed ἔργων?


John,
It seems to me to be the demonstrative use of the article.
Scott Lawson
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Re: Why is this article causing me troubles

Post by MAubrey »

John Christof wrote:οὐκ ἐξ ἔργων τῶν ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ
The article is helping specify that the prepositional phrase ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ should be read as modifying the noun ἔργων.

If you have access to a decent library loan system, Stephanie Bakker's monograph The noun phrase in Ancient Greek discusses these sorts of patterns in detail.
Mike Aubrey, Linguist
SIL International
Koine-Greek.com
Scott Lawson
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Re: Why is this article causing me troubles

Post by Scott Lawson »

Mike was my comment inaccurate? έργων being the antecedent of των...
Scott Lawson
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Re: Why is this article causing me troubles

Post by MAubrey »

Scott Lawson wrote:Mike was my comment inaccurate? έργων being the antecedent of των...
That depends on how you look at it.

Technically, we would only talk about antecedents at all when the demonstrative/article functioned external to the phrase it refers to. In this case, τῶν ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ exists within the noun phrase that is headed by έργων.

At the same time, since the idea of phrases didn't really exist as concepts when labels such as 'demonstrative use of the article' were conceived, it's still perfectly acceptable to talk about it as an antecedent from that perspective.

The good news is that thinking within an older model doesn't make you wrong. It's just a difference way of viewing the same structures.
Mike Aubrey, Linguist
SIL International
Koine-Greek.com
Scott Lawson
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Re: Why is this article causing me troubles

Post by Scott Lawson »

Thank you Mike!
Scott Lawson
Scott Lawson
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Re: Why is this article causing me troubles

Post by Scott Lawson »

Mike couldn't the sentence be restructured as ουκ εξ έργων των α εποιησαμεν ημεις εν δικαιοσύνη making εν δικαιοσύνη an adverbial preposition with των α the relative pronoun and the clause a restrictive relative clause?
Scott Lawson
John Christof
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Re: Why is this article causing me troubles

Post by John Christof »

Thank you very much Scott and Mike for your answers! That makes it clear.
Hefin J. Jones
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Location: Davao, Philippines

Re: Why is this article causing me troubles

Post by Hefin J. Jones »

Thanks Mike for the Bakker title - I couldn't help feel a certain sense of irony when I noticed (1) Her title, subtitle and (2) the series title; a feeling somewhat compounded by your comments soon after about phrases.
Hefin Jones

instructor in New Testament - Koinonia Theological Seminary, Davao
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Re: Why is this article causing me troubles

Post by MAubrey »

Scott Lawson wrote:Mike couldn't the sentence be restructured as ουκ εξ έργων των α εποιησαμεν ημεις εν δικαιοσύνη making εν δικαιοσύνη an adverbial preposition with των α the relative pronoun and the clause a restrictive relative clause?
Well, it could be restructured like that, but then it wouldn't say the same thing as what the author wrote. Also, I'm fairly confident there's no such thing as an articular relative pronoun. You're never going to get "των α."
John Christof wrote:Thank you very much Scott and Mike for your answers! That makes it clear.
You are certainly welcome. Any time.
Hefin J. Jones wrote:Thanks Mike for the Bakker title - I couldn't help feel a certain sense of irony when I noticed (1) Her title, subtitle and (2) the series title; a feeling somewhat compounded by your comments soon after about phrases.
Oh?
Mike Aubrey, Linguist
SIL International
Koine-Greek.com
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