Opening words of 2 Peter 1:5

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klitwak
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Opening words of 2 Peter 1:5

Post by klitwak »

2 Peter 1:5a reads
Καὶ αὐτὸ τοῦτο δὲ σπουδὴν πᾶσαν παρεισενέγκαντες ἐπιχορηγήσατε ἐν τῇ πίστει ὑμῶν τὴν ἀρετήν,
I have looked at a few English translations to see how they deal with the first four words, but that was not illuminating.
BDAG says that the Καὶ αὐτὸ combination should be rendered "even."
δὲ is a post-positive, and therefore should be translated before τοῦτο.
However, "Even also this" makes little sense. English translations offer something like "For this reason," but I don't think that Καὶ can carry the sense of "for." Rendering τοῦτο as "this reason" is certainly going beyond τοῦτο means as a demonstrative pronoun. So I am a bit stymied as to how to treat these four words. αὐτὸ τοῦτο could mean "same this" or "this itself," but the δὲ still needs to find a home in the clause. I think it should be rendered,
"And also this same thing." Then one needs to ask if αὐτὸ τοῦτο is a nominative that essentially stands by itself to introduce the following instructions about virtues. The rendering "For this very reason" suggests that it is being taken as some sort of accusative.

Apologies if this seems like a beginner question, but I never encountered anything as, well, terse or elliptical as this in 1 John or James, the first two books we did in my three years of NT Greek. How would others analyze these four words? Thanks.

Ken Litwak
Kenneth D. Litwak, Ph.D.
Reference and Instruction Librarian
Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary
Mill Valley, CA 94941
kennethlitwak@ggbts.edu
Adjunct Professor of New Testament in ExL
Asbury Theological Seminary
Wilmore, KY
Jonathan Robie
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Re: Opening words of 2 Peter 1:5

Post by Jonathan Robie »

Don't apologize, this is a good question.

Here's how I read it, at least until someone explains why this is wrong.

αὐτὸ τοῦτο - this very reason, see other uses of this phrase
καὶ αὐτὸ τοῦτο - also for this very reason
καὶ αὐτὸ τοῦτο δὲ - but also for this very reason / and also for this very reason, with δὲ postpositive to καὶ αὐτὸ τοῦτο
ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;
http://jonathanrobie.biblicalhumanities.org/
Stirling Bartholomew
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Re: Opening words of 2 Peter 1:5

Post by Stirling Bartholomew »

Hi Ken,

2 Peter 1:3-7 not an easy text!

I know this is the lazy man's contribution but I am going to post Meyer's and Alford's treatment and then go check out what Bauckham and Mayor have to say about it.

Meyer
2 Peter 1:5-6. καὶ αὐτὸ τοῦτο δέ] καὶ … δέ, equivalent to “but also,” “and also;” cf. Winer, p. 412 f. [E. T. 553 f.]; Buttmann, p. 312. καί adds something new to what goes before; δέ brings out that what is added is to be distinguished from what precedes.[29]

Neither ΠΕΡΊ nor ΚΑΤΆ nor ΠΡΌς is to be supplied to ΑὐΤῸ ΤΟῦΤΟ, which stands here absolutely, equivalent to ΔΙʼ ΑὐΤῸ ΤΟῦΤΟ: “for this very reason,” cf. Winer, p. 134 f. [E. T. 178], and refers back to the thought contained in ὡς πάντα … δεδωρημένης, and further developed in the clauses following: “since ye have been made partakers of all that, therefore,” etc. Grotius: Deus fecit quod suum est, vos quoque quod vestrum est faciete. Dietlein takes ΑὐΤῸ ΤΟῦΤΟ as a simple accusative dependent on ἘΠΙΧΟΡΉΣΑΤΕ (thus also Steinfass); but this combination, which would make ΤΟῦΤΟ refer to the subsequent ἘΝ Τῇ Π. ὙΜ. ΤῊΝ ἈΡΕΤΉΝ, or to Τ. ἈΡΕΤΉΝ alone, is opposed by the ΑὐΤΌ beside it, which looks back to what has gone before. Nor does Dietlein fail to see this, for he explains: “the announcements given are now to be produced in the form of Christian virtues;” this, however, results in a “straining” (Brückner) of the thought.
Alford
5.] And on this very account (αὐτὸ τοῦτο, lit. “this very thing:” but just as τί, “what,” has come to mean “why?” “for what reason?” so αὐτό, or τοῦτο, or the strengthened demonstrative produced by the juxtaposition of both, has come to mean, “wherefore,” “for this reason.” See Winer in reff.: and cf. Xen. Anab. i. 9. 21, αὐτὸ τοῦτο οὗπερ αὐτὸς ἕνεκα φίλων ᾤετο δεῖσθαι, … καὶ αὐτὸς ἐπειρᾶτο συνεργὸς τοῖς φίλοις κράτιστος εἶναι,—‘for the very reason, for which he thought that he himself wanted friends.… he also tried to be’ &c.: and Plato, Protag. p. 310 e, αὐτὰ ταῦτα νῦν ἥκω παρά σε. The reason here being, ὡς.… δεδωρημένης κ.τ.λ., above: so that this forms a sort of apodosis to that sentence. The E. V. ‘beside this’ is entirely at fault. Nor can we, as Dietlein, make αὐτὸ τοῦτο the object after ἐπιχορηγήσατε) giving on your part (παρεισενέγκαντες, lit. introducing by the side of; i. e. besides those precious promises on God’s part, bringing in on your part) all diligence (so σπουδὴν εἰσενέγκαι or εἰσενέγκασθαι in Libanius, Josephus, Antt. xx. 9. 2, Diod. Sic. p. 554, in Wetst.), furnish (from the original meaning of the verb, to provide expenses for a chorus, it easily gets this of furnishing forth: see reff. And the construction and meaning of the following clauses is not as Horneius and the E. V., “adjicite fidei virtutem &c.,” but the ἐν is each time used of that which is assumed to be theirs, and the exhortation is, to take care that, in the exercise of that, the next step is developed: “præsens quisque gradus subsequentem parit et facilem reddit: subsequens priorem temperat ac perficit,” Bengel) in your faith (Bengel remarks, “fides, Dei donum: ideo non jubemur subministrare fidem, sed in fide fructus illos, qui septem enumerantur: fide chorum ducente, amore concludente”) virtue (best perhaps understood with Bengel as “strenuus animi tonus ac vigor.” Œc. gives it τὰ ἔργα; but this seems too general: it is indeed that which produces τὰ ἔργα, without which faith is dead: and hence the connexion), and in your virtue, knowledge (probably that practical discriminating knowledge, of which it is said Ephesians 5:17, μὴ γίνεσθε ἄφρονες, ἀλλὰ συνίετε τί τὸ θέλημα τοῦ κυρίου: “quæ malum a bono secernit, et mali fugam docet,” Beng.: not as Œc., ἡ τῶν τοῦ θεοῦ ἀποκρύφων μυστηρίων εἴδησις),
C. Stirling Bartholomew
Stirling Bartholomew
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Re: Opening words of 2 Peter 1:5

Post by Stirling Bartholomew »

2Pet. 1:3 Ὡς πάντα ἡμῖν τῆς θείας δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ τὰ πρὸς ζωὴν καὶ εὐσέβειαν δεδωρημένης διὰ τῆς ἐπιγνώσεως τοῦ καλέσαντος ἡμᾶς ἰδίᾳ δόξῃ καὶ ἀρετῇ, 4 δι᾿ ὧν τὰ τίμια καὶ μέγιστα ἡμῖν ἐπαγγέλματα δεδώρηται, ἵνα διὰ τούτων γένησθε θείας κοινωνοὶ φύσεως ἀποφυγόντες τῆς ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἐν ἐπιθυμίᾳ φθορᾶς. 5 Καὶ αὐτὸ τοῦτο δὲ σπουδὴν πᾶσαν παρεισενέγκαντες ἐπιχορηγήσατε ἐν τῇ πίστει ὑμῶν τὴν ἀρετήν, ἐν δὲ τῇ ἀρετῇ τὴν γνῶσιν,
The rendering "For this very reason" suggests that it is being taken as some sort of accusative.
The attempt to back translate the English into greek will fail because your assuming that the translation represents a word by word glossing of the text which in this case it does not. The expression Καὶ αὐτὸ τοῦτο δὲ functions at the discourse-level as an emphatic anaphoric connecting expression. It marks what precedes as the grounds for what immediately follows. "For this very reason" as a unit expresses this function.

There seems to be some disagreement among the commentators about what meta-language is best to express the relationship between v5 and v3-4. J Mayor and J N D Kelly object to Alford's suggestion that v5 functions something like an apodosis.
C. Stirling Bartholomew
klitwak
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Re: Opening words of 2 Peter 1:5

Post by klitwak »

I am glad to know that this is recognized by others as a hard passage! Thanks for the input.

I was not trying to go from English back to Greek, except in the sense of trying to figure out how fairly literal translations made their choices. Obviously, trying to go from English to Greek is what is wrong with interlinears. You cannot get a word-for-word correspondence between two languages that way, not least because English requires words to express what is embedded grammatically for a Greek speaker. The rest of 2 Peter 1:5 raises that very problem. The datives with EN need to be rendered as separate words in English, while those "extra" words would not have come to mind for a Greek speaker who would have looked at/heard the EN and the dative and simply known (probably if the force of EN was locative, instrumental, etc.

Ken
Kenneth D. Litwak, Ph.D.
Reference and Instruction Librarian
Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary
Mill Valley, CA 94941
kennethlitwak@ggbts.edu
Adjunct Professor of New Testament in ExL
Asbury Theological Seminary
Wilmore, KY
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