Re: 1 Tim 4:10 (was I Cor. 14:18)

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Tue Jun 23 1998 - 06:24:04 EDT


At 12:18 AM -0400 6/23/98, David L. Moore wrote:
>
> In another vein, and to suggest a new thread, if it interests
>anyone else,
>the similarity of the expression with MALLON here and with MALISTA in 1Tim.
>4:10 makes me wonder if the genitives before MALISTA should not be taken as
>dependent on MALISTA rather than on SWTHR. The genitives before MALLON in
>1Cor. 14:18 are taken with the comparative and so express the lesser group
>of a comparison. Understanding 1Tim. 4:10 this way, one would translate,
>"This is why we labor and wrestle, because we have set our hope upon the
>living God who, in preference to all humanity, is the Savior of those who
>believe."
>

The text reads: ... EPI QEWi ZWNTI, hOS ESTIN SWTHR PANTWN ANQRWPWN MALISTA
PISTWN.

This strikes me as a highly improbable construction of the terms in this
clause for several reasons, to wit:

(1) PISTWN is not quite equatable with a substantive participle, TWN
PISTEUONTWN, and moreover, if it does not construe with ANQRWPWN, it really
ought to have an article to function as a substantive;

(2) In my opinion, (a) the grammatical construction of an adverbial phrase
such as PANTWN ANQRWPWN MALISTA with a nominal clause is strange, even if
one wants to argue that hOS ESTIN SWTHR = hOS SWiZEI; (b) the paralellism
you point to is somewhat questionable: in 1 Cor 14:18 PANTWN hUMWN MALLON
construes with an authentic verbal predicate GLWSSAIS LALW; (c) moreover,
the hyperbaton requiring PISTWN to construe with SWTHR on the far side of
another genitive phrase that is readily intelligible with SWTHR, namely
PANTWN ANQRWPWN, is almost, if not wholly, intolerable;

(3) In terms of the logic of your suggested construction, why should "all
human beings" be the term of comparison for SWTHR ESTIN when the antecedent
of hOS is QEWi ZWNTI? Has there really been some suggestion that humanity
in totality could play a saving role?

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/

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