[B-Greek] Romans 8:16: SUMMARTUREI TWi PNEUMATI

Elizabeth Kline kline_dekooning at earthlink.net
Tue Jun 10 16:43:40 EDT 2008


Brian,

Wallace can be both subtle and confusing. He sets up the problem as  
choice between "indirect object" and "associative dative" then he  
proceeds to nuance his view of "indirect object" with three  
subcategories and chooses the third one which is semantically closest  
to "associative dative". The semantic difference amounts to "witness  
on behalf of or in support of" and "witness with".

start quote///
One of the fundamental problems with this verb is that in certain
contexts the meaning of “bear witness with” someone can mean almost
the same thing as “bear witness to” someone. This is one of the
reasons why there is confusion in Rom 8:16. For example, even in the
indirect object view, there are various permutations:

1. “bear witness to” a jury or a judge

2. “bear witness to” the truth, act, opinion, etc.

3. “bear witness to” the defendant, either for/on behalf of (dativus
commodi) or against (dativus incommodi) him; this also shades off into
“assure.”

The first of these would be a pure indirect object usage: the jury or
judge is neutral and is hearing the case. The second kind of bearing
witness is a confirmation of the truth, etc. This would certainly not
involve an associative idea unless that which bears the truth-witness
is also cut from the same cloth, or if truth is personified. The third
permutation, that of bearing witness to, for, or against a defendant
is the kind of indirect usage I see in Rom 8:16. It is thus also a
dative of interest.19 But this is the closest of the three
permutations to an associative idea. So, how can we distinguish the
two in other texts?

/// end quote

Wallace then claims that in contexts where SUMMARTUREW w/dat can be  
read as MARTUREW w/dat without any change in meaning we see  
SUMMARTUREW functioning as an intensified MARTUREW. He also claims  
that SUMMARTUREW without a dative can be assumed to intensified but  
not associative. He then cites  Sophocles, Electra 1224 as an  
exception to this "rule".

I will leave it to the linguists to dismantle this.

Elizabeth Kline







More information about the B-Greek mailing list