ὅτι in 1 Thessalonians 1.5

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Andrew Chapman
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ὅτι in 1 Thessalonians 1.5

Post by Andrew Chapman »

4 εἰδότες, ἀδελφοὶ ἠγαπημένοι ὑπὸ [τοῦ] θεοῦ, τὴν ἐκλογὴν ὑμῶν, 5 ὅτι τὸ εὐαγγέλιον ἡμῶν οὐκ ἐγενήθη εἰς ὑμᾶς ἐν λόγῳ μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν δυνάμει καὶ ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ καὶ [ἐν] πληροφορίᾳ πολλῇ, καθὼς οἴδατε οἷοι ἐγενήθημεν [ἐν] ὑμῖν δι’ ὑμᾶς.

I read the ὅτι as something like 'that', introducing a further statement about what they know: knowing .. your election, that our gospel etc. It can't be epexegetical exactly, because that wouldn't quite make sense, but perhaps a related thought suggested by the previous one. Paul recalls how the gospel was preached in such power that some were chosen out to become believers, or something like that, perhaps.

But most say it's more like 'because' introducing a reason for the previous statement: knowing .. your election [ie that you are chosen]. For our gospel etc. OR knowing .. your election, because our gospel etc.

εἰδότες .. τὴν ἐκλογὴν ὑμῶν seems too bald to be a complete thought - I feel it needs a bit more. ὅτι seems to me to cry out to be related to εἰδότες - but I may be wrong.

In 1 Thess 2.1: 'Αὐτοὶ γὰρ οἴδατε, ἀδελφοί, τὴν εἴσοδον ἡμῶν τὴν πρὸς ὑμᾶς ὅτι οὐ κενὴ γέγονεν,', ὅτι is clearly like 'that', not 'because' (see also Romans 13.11, 1 Cor 16.15, 2 Cor 12.3-4)

Any thoughts? Andrew
Stirling Bartholomew
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Re: ὅτι in 1 Thessalonians 1.5

Post by Stirling Bartholomew »

The question raised in the secondary literature concerning ὅτι in verse five is a theological question. Some expositors[1] argue that ὅτι cannot introduce an explanation of τὴν ἐκλογὴν ὑμῶν simply because what follows ὅτι is more suitable as evidence serving as the grounds for Paul's conviction of their status rather than an expiation of the nature of their status. This is not a grammar issue. It is a question about what constitutes τὴν ἐκλογὴν.

[1]G. Lunemann, T. Dwight, H. Alford, L. Morris, C. Wanamaker, P. O'Brien (1970s article cited in Wanamaker).
C. Stirling Bartholomew
Andrew Chapman
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Re: ὅτι in 1 Thessalonians 1.5

Post by Andrew Chapman »

Thanks, Clay. As I see it, I am not asking a question about grammar, since as I understand it, both ways of reading it are possible grammatically. I am not sure it can be resolved exegetically either, because neither way of taking it is particularly easy, so far as I can see. So I was hoping to hear how others read it, which way does it strike one as reading better, in the way that Paul writes, and making more sense. Milligan, who must have read as much koine material as anyone, describes ὅτι here as 'demonstrative', and renders it as 'how that':
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3myvz ... sp=sharing

[By the way, Milligan's use of the term demonstrative has got me thinking about the connection between our two uses of 'that'. 'I know that she is ill' is actually quite close to '"She is ill." "Yes, I know that."' Its use as a subordinating conjunction introducing an object clause seems actually to be quite close to it specifying a particular object, or so it seems to me.]

Andrew
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