Re: Multiple Simultaneous Functions

From: Edgar M. Krentz (emkrentz@mcs.com)
Date: Sun Jan 18 1998 - 18:53:36 EST


>However, I am still a little uneasy with
>admitting that a syntactic component in a clause can have Multiple
>Simultaneous Functions. I can see that the participle may function adverbially
>and adjectivally at the same time.

Why?

>How many other syntactic components in a Greek clause can have Multiple
>Simultaneous Functions? The finite verb can have both accusative and dative
>arguments simultaneously. Is this an example of the same phenomenon? It has
>been suggested to me that relative pronouns can have Multiple Simultaneous
>Functions. Can anyone provide an example of a relative pronoun performing two
>functions simultaneously?

There is a construction that the Greek rhetoricians called SUNTAXIS APO
KOINOU, in which a phrase or a word can be said or written only once, but
will be understood as modifying two different other words. There is an
example of this in the LXX translation of Habbakuk 2:4 reproduced in Romans
1:17: hO DE DIKAIOS EK PISTEWS ZHSETAI. The words EK PISTEWS may in Greek
modify both DIKAIOS and ZHSETAi, and it will have two difference senses:
"out of fidelity" and "out of trust."

This is different from the phrase hH AGAPE TOU QEOU, where the writer may
intentionally have allowed a double entendre to creep in: both the love for
God and the love God has, i.e. both an objective and subjective genitive.

Such word play is one of the devices that enriches language, makes a writer
or speaker fascinating, and leads the reader to ponder what the sense may
be, thereby increasing attention and comprehension.

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Edgar Krentz
Professor of New Testament
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
Telephone: (773) 256-0752
e-mail: Office: ekrentz@lstc.edu;
Home: emkrentz@mcs.com
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