1 Thessalonians 5:23b

From: Rolf Furuli (furuli@online.no)
Date: Wed Dec 10 1997 - 06:45:37 EST


John Reece wrote:

<Rolf

<Thank you for your response to the query about 1 Thess. 5:23. The
<possibility that that PNEUMA, YUCH and SWMA may refer to the church as a
<whole rather than each individual member is intriguing.

<I'm still not quite clear about the grammer of 5:23b. Please check me on
<the following diagram, about which I am uncertain and desire correction:

<hOLOKLHRON = subject
        hUMWN = modifier of subject
        TO PNEUMA KAI hH YUCH KAI TO SWMA = appositional modifier of subject

<THRHQEIH = verb
        AMEMPTWS = adverb

<Translation: The whole [singular] of you [plural] - the spirit, the
<soul, and the body - be kept blameless...

<Let's hear from grammarians about this.

Dear John,

I cannot see anything which makes your analysis invalid, but all the
commentaries I have consulted view hOLOKLHRON as a predicative rather than
a subject. I would appreciate grammatical comments from others. Below some
comments of mine:

Semantically speaking, the position of hOLOKLHRON at the beginning of the
clause indicates that it represents the THEME, and the rest of the clause
the RHEME. Grammatically speaking I have problems in viewing it as subject.
Formally speaking, it is a neuter adjective and we expect it to qualify
something rather than being used absolutely. The nearest noun is TO PNEUMA
which also is neuter, but I think it must qualify all the three nouns TO
PNEUMA and hH YUCH and TO SWMA. In relation to the three nouns hOLOKLHRON
is not attributive but predicative. The adverb AMEMPTWS most naturally is a
part of the adverbial, being qualified by EN THi PAROUSIA.,and I take it as
an adverb of manner (blamelessly).

This gives the following diagram:

hOLOKLHRON = predicative

        hUMWN = modifier of subject

                  TO PNEUMA KAI hH YUCH KAI TO SWMA = subject

THRHQEIH = verb

        AMEMPTWS = adverbial

                EN THi PAROUSIA..modifier if AMEMPTWS

Regards
Rolf

Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo
fufuli@online.no



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