1 Cor 14:27--number agreement

From: Trevor M Peterson (spedrson@juno.com)
Date: Tue Jun 16 1998 - 11:37:24 EDT


Well, this is my first post since the changeover; hopefully it will come
out all right.

I've come out of lurking once again with more of a question than an
answer. In dialogue about 1 Corinthians 14, an acquaintance raised a
view I had never heard before, that he claims came from a Classics
scholar (so I'd be especially interested in comments from any of similar
background!). In v. 27, EITE GLWSSHi TIS LALEI, KATA DUO H TO PLEIOTON
TREIS KAI ANA MEROS, KAI hEIS DIERMHNEUETW, does KATA DUO H TO PLEIOTON
TREIS refer to LOGOI (from v. 19) or to speakers (as most of the versions
seem to render it)? His arguments for LOGOI were as follows:

1) The singular TIS requires that only one person be in view as a
speaker, which rules out the possibility of two or three speakers.

2) The singular LALEI also requires that only one person be in view as a
speaker.

Basically, what it comes down to is the lack of number agreement between
TIS LALEI and DUO H TO PLEIOTON TREIS. My initial thought is that the
prepositional phrase does not require numerical agreement and that TIS
could be singular to focus on the idea of one speaker at a time.
Furthermore, ANA MEROS would seem a bit odd as requiring that two or
three oracles or proclamations be issued individually. How else would
one person speak them? Finally, I know that hEIS can be used as a simple
pronoun, but in a context where one sentence includes DUO, TREIS, and
hEIS, I'm tempted to take all three as applying to the same sort of
thing; i.e., people.

My lack of understanding as to how numerals tend to function in Greek is
a handicap for me in this situation. But I am trying to consider all the
angles. Even if there is a rigid requirement that they agree in
Classical, would there necessarily be the same in Koine? A bit further
off the topic of this list, could Semitic number agreement have affected
Paul's wording, since Hebrew tends to use numerals with singular forms?

Trevor Peterson, M.Div.
Capital Bible Seminary
Lanham, MD

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