Emphatic?: Bracketed Inclusions

[Tim Miller]

When a Greek author brackets an inclusion by sandwiching a phrase between an article and a noun, is he making emphasis or merely clarifying?

Example from 1 Peter 1:13

"ἐπὶ τὴν φερομένην ὑμῖν χάριν" on the grace which will be brought to you.

Of course, Peter could have included φερομένην ὑμῖν outside the article . . . noun construction. So his choice to do so is meaningful. Is it because of clarity or emphasis, or perhaps both?

Thanks for your time.

[andley]

IMHO, it's "the first attributive position of participle", namely,

T(τὴν)—A(φερομένην ὑμῖν)—N(χάριν)

[serunge]

Constituent ordering principles within noun phrases (NPs) is related to those for clauses, but operates a little differently in that it is more driven by the preceding context than a clause. Levinsohn does a great job of outlining the principles in play and how they tend to operate here: https://scholars.sil.org/sites/scholars ... dering.pdf

Based on this being the first reference to χάρις is the context, we can rule out this being a switch from one kind of χάρις to another kind, or contrasting two different things that will be brought to us, χάρις and something else. So given that natural information flow leads us to expect the modifier to follow the substantive it modifies, the fronting within the NP would likely be attributable to emphasis. Having said that, you also need to look at the writer's style compared to others. In 1 Peter, simple genitive modifiers follow the noun, but more complex modifiers like περὶ τῆς *εἰς ὑμᾶς* χάριτος or τὸ *ἐν αὐτοῖς* πνεῦμα Χριστοῦ in 1:10, or τὸν *τῆς παροικίας ὑμῶν* χρόνον in 1:17, are more often than not sandwiched between the article and noun. I'd still consider these fronted within the NP, and hence marked for emphasis at the level of the NP (not the clause as a whole), but the more a writer uses a device like this the more watered down its effects. Again, it still results in some measure of emphasis, just mitigated compared to the same thing found in James or Luke who would do this more sparingly. It draws extra attention to the qualifier, compelling the reader to consider the alternative kinds of X that might have accomplished this. So we are to place our hope not in the grace that we have received already, but the future and much assured one that will come at Christ's return along the lines of the confidence in what is not yet seen (1Pet 1:8–9).

Hope that helps.

[Tim Miller]

Fanstastic replay. Thanks for your time. Both the article you linked and your explanation were exactly what I was looking for. Grateful for your use of gifts and time, brother.