ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ and ἐν Χριστῷ in Pauline text

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Eiji Koyama
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ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ and ἐν Χριστῷ in Pauline text

Post by Eiji Koyama »

ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐν τῷ Ἀδὰμ πάντες ἀποθνῄσκουσιν, οὕτως καὶ ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ πάντες ζῳοποιηθήσονται. (1Cor.15:22)

Is there any difference between ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ and ἐν Χριστῷ in Pauline text?
Can I say former is instrumental and latter is locative?
MAubrey
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Re: ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ and ἐν Χριστῷ in Pauline text

Post by MAubrey »

Eiji Koyama wrote:ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐν τῷ Ἀδὰμ πάντες ἀποθνῄσκουσιν, οὕτως καὶ ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ πάντες ζῳοποιηθήσονται. (1Cor.15:22)

Is there any difference between ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ and ἐν Χριστῷ in Pauline text?
Yes there is a difference, but it isn't a difference in meaning. That is to say, in both cases, Χριστὸς is definite. The difference is dependent on the structure of the larger context of the phrase in question (e.g. the paragraph) and how the speaker's knowledge of ὀ Χριστὸς relates to his hearer's knowledge.

It's a rather complex subject, though. I'm not sure I could say much more than that in the beginner's forum without a lot of confusion...
Eiji Koyama wrote:Can I say former is instrumental and latter is locative?
No. To the best of my knowledge, instrumental vs. locative usage is never determined by the appearance (or lack) of the article.
Mike Aubrey, Linguist
SIL International
Koine-Greek.com
Stephen Carlson
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Re: ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ and ἐν Χριστῷ in Pauline text

Post by Stephen Carlson »

I would like to second Mike's point that the article does not determine whether a dative is instrumental or locative.
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
Melbourne, Australia
Eiji Koyama
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Re: ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ and ἐν Χριστῷ in Pauline text

Post by Eiji Koyama »

Thank you for the answer.
I wonder why "ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ" is mostly in Ephesians except the one I posted in 1Corinthians and another one in 2Corinthians.
However "ἐν Χριστῷ" is everywhere.
Is it just structual?
Stephen Carlson
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Re: ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ and ἐν Χριστῷ in Pauline text

Post by Stephen Carlson »

Eiji Koyama wrote:I wonder why "ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ" is mostly in Ephesians except the one I posted in 1Corinthians and another one in 2Corinthians.
However "ἐν Χριστῷ" is everywhere.
Is it just structual?
It should be helpful to quote and discuss specific texts, rather than report impressions. For the 1 Cor 15:22 the article is there because of its discourse function (which I would identify as a contrastive topic).
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
Melbourne, Australia
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