Rick H. Duggin said: > Wallace says, "What might be the nearest antecedent contextually > might not be the nearest antecedent in the author's mind" (Gk. Grammar > Beyond Basics, p.326, discussing demonstratives). Does this mean that > the issue rests merely upon the context of the passage, as my > suggestions above indicate? Not to *prove* one way or the other, but there is an interesting exchange in Luke 22:47 - 23:25. The name "Jesus" is rather infrequently used even though other names are brought to the fore to disambiguate the antecedents. Jonathan M. Watt argues in "Discourse Analysis and the New Testament" under the chapter "Pronouns of Shame and Disgrace in Luke 22:63-64" the following: "Not even once during the course of the arrest and Peter's denial (Lk. 22:54-62), the mockery (22:63-65), or the morning proceedings (22:66-67), is Jesus identified by name. Instead, the preponderance of the masculine pronoun AUTOS `he/him', the demonstrative pronoun/adjective hOUTOS `this/that one', or just `the man' is striking..." However, I'll observe that Luke does mention "Jesus" by name at rather strategic (semantically speaking) times. Watt starts the chapter with: "The observation of Saussure that `Language is a social fact' is more specifically drawn out by HALLIDAY (1978: 3) when he states that `language *actively symbolizes* the social system, representing metaphorically in its patterns of variation the variation that characterize human culture'. When a speaker selects from his repertoire one form of speech over another, his sociocultural environment is being incorporated, in some way or another, into his operation code. [emphasis his]" His point is that there is a "power semantic" functioning in the text which causes the author to portray Jesus as nameless. Thus the closest antecedent is not the one in the author's mind. BTW, Jonathan Watt also has examples from the OT. --- B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek You are currently subscribed to b-greek as: [jwrobie@mindspring.com] To unsubscribe, forward this message to leave-b-greek-327Q@franklin.oit.unc.edu To subscribe, send a message to subscribe-b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu