THi ELEUQERIAi in Gal 5:1 (Doch Nochmals)

From: Bill Barton (billbarton@uky.campuscwix.net)
Date: Tue Jun 08 1999 - 22:18:04 EDT


Carl Conrad wrote (June 8, 1999):

CC>I am not close enough to a decent library where I could check
Deissmann's celebrated book [Light from the Ancient East]. Could anyone who
has it in a personal library tell us a little more about this, please? I
ask this because it seems quite plausible that a dative of purpose might be
used with ELEUQEROW in a formula of manumission, and it strikes me as a
(rather!) thrilling notion that Paul could be quite deliberately emulating
a formula of manumission, in which case we might translate Gal 5:1: "Christ
has set us free to be free persons ...", i.e.THi ELEUQERIAi = hOPWS
ELEUQEROI WMEN. IF ELEUQERIAi ELEUQEROUN is a formula of manumission, then
we would not need to fancy abstractions of Hegelian metaphysics.>

Is it possible that "freeing with freedom" is a Hebrew cognate
construction, so that this should be considered a cognate dative in Gal
5:1?

Along these lines, Deissmann wrote:

"Peculiarities of syntax and of style should not in the first instance be
referred to an alleged Judaeo-Greek of the translators, but rather to the
character of the original. We must, in our linguistic criticism, apply
this principle not only to many of the Old Testament Apocryphal writings,
but also to the Synoptic Gospels, in so far, at least, as these contain
elements which originally were thought and spoken in Aramaic"

(Bible Studies, 1901; reprinted by Hendrickson, Peabody MA 1988, pg. 74)

And Turner wrote along these lines of Gal 5:1:

"The Hebrew infinite absolute shows its influence in the use of cognate
dat. of verbal nouns in LXX and NT (Thackeray OT Gr 48f, Johannessohn DGKPS
56f), e.g. Ge 2:17 Mt 15:4. There was already some class. precedent
(Schwyzer II 166), but Biblical Greek has a wealth of exx: Lk 22:15
EPIQUMIAi EPEQUMHSA, Ac 2:17 ENUPVIOIS ENUPNIAZESQAI, 4:17 APEILHi
APEILHSWMEQA vl., 5:28 PARAGGELIAi PARHGGEILAMEN, 23:14, 28:26 LXX, Ga 5:1
THi ELEUQERIAi...HLEUQERWSEN, Jas 5:17. However, the additioin of an
attribute almost always results in the substitution of the accus. of
content: so Jn 3:29 CARAi CAIREI becomes Mt 2:10 ECARHSEN CARAN MEGALHN;
but not always, because we find Mk 5:42 EXESTHSAN EKSTASEI MEGALHi 1 Macc
14:29 DOXHi MEGALHi EDOXASAN."

(Nigel Turner, "A Grammar of the Greek New Testament," T&T Clark,
Edinburgh, 1963, pp. 241-242)

Bill Barton

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