Greek Search Question

[eric in redding]

I would like to find out how often the nominative singular participle refers to something in the previous context that is not in the same grammatical case. Is there a way to search for that in Accordance?

[jarcher]

You may be able to do this with the syntax module but that is really dependent on what you mean by "previous context" since that is really subjective.

[Λύχνις Δαν]

Have you got an example passage containing what you are looking for ?

 

I tried using the ANTECEDENT tag of the syntax module but there are problems there, not least being that one does not know the antecedent and the anchor distinctly - both are tagged with the antecedent relation. (This issue has been raised before I might add). In addition it's not clear to me that you mean "something in the previous context" should be something carried by syntax or something more generally contextual. Thus an example would be helpful.

 

Thx

D

Edited January 2, 2019 by דָנִיאֶל

[eric in redding]

James 3:8 But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. (τὴν δὲ γλῶσσαν οὐδεὶς δαμάσαι δύναται ἀνθρώπων, ἀκατάστατον κακόν, μεστὴ ἰοῦ θανατηφόρου). Here, the adjectival phrase, “restless evil” (ἀκατάστατον κακόν) is nominative masculine singular, but it modifies τὴν γλῶσσαν, which is accusative feminine singular. 

 

Another possible example is 2Thess 1:7-8-- 

when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God (ἐν τῇ ἀποκαλύψει τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ ἀπ᾿ οὐρανοῦ μετ᾿ ἀγγέλων δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ ⸂ἐν πυρὶ φλογός, διδόντος ἐκδίκησιν τοῖς μὴ εἰδόσιν θεὸν), where διδόντος, “inflicting” is masculine singular genitive, but refers to the previous angels (v. 7, ἀγγέλων), which is masculine plural genitive (although I realize some say it would be pointing back to Jesus instead of angels). 

 

So what I am wondering is how often an adjective or a participle doesn't match what it is modifying.

 

[Λύχνις Δαν]

Thanx for the examples.

 

Jas 3:8 is interesting. I see that James has perhaps a predilection for use of the neuter with the feminine in pred. nom. style constructions. See 3:5. Probably worth studying that. No doubt, hence your question. EGGNT is not very rewarding on why this might be. Though, rather than treating it as a modifier of γλωσση he Vlachos suggest apposition is perhaps more likely - this makes sense given the distance involved. The Accordance syntax chart models it that way. As a note on searching it there is no antecedent relation in the syntax chart here. In any case this is adjectival not participial so my original attempt would have missed it for multiple reasons. But perhaps apposition with mismatched case would be interesting. But that wouldn't find Jas 3:5.

 

In 2Thess 1:7-8, I don't think that the subject of διδόντος  is αγγελων but rather Ιησου is. This is also how the Acc syntax models it. In this case the syntax chart could be used to identify the case though it would not be straightforward as a search because the subject is a null subject of a participle for which the antecedent is Ιησου.

 

To investigate the adjectival case in appositives or otherwise I would search for neuter adjectives in pred nom kind of constructions (Jas 3:5) and apposition (Jas 3:8).

These would need to be done for subjects and complements in the second case.

 

Thx

D

Edited January 3, 2019 by דָנִיאֶל

[Λύχνις Δαν]

Something like this finds Jas 3:8 and a lot of false positives. But there are only 12 hits. Adding Gender to the not AGREE returns a handful more hits.

 

 

Thx

D

[Donald Cobb]

 

James 3:8 But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. (τὴν δὲ γλῶσσαν οὐδεὶς δαμάσαι δύναται ἀνθρώπων, ἀκατάστατον κακόν, μεστὴ ἰοῦ θανατηφόρου). Here, the adjectival phrase, “restless evil” (ἀκατάστατον κακόν) is nominative masculine singular, but it modifies τὴν γλῶσσαν, which is accusative feminine singular. 

 

Another possible example is 2Thess 1:7-8-- 

when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God (ἐν τῇ ἀποκαλύψει τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ ἀπ᾿ οὐρανοῦ μετ᾿ ἀγγέλων δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ ⸂ἐν πυρὶ φλογός, διδόντος ἐκδίκησιν τοῖς μὴ εἰδόσιν θεὸν), where διδόντος, “inflicting” is masculine singular genitive, but refers to the previous angels (v. 7, ἀγγέλων), which is masculine plural genitive (although I realize some say it would be pointing back to Jesus instead of angels). 

 

So what I am wondering is how often an adjective or a participle doesn't match what it is modifying.

 

 

Hello Eric, 

 

Daniel has put you on the right track. In the Jm 3:8 phrase (τὴν δὲ γλῶσσαν οὐδεὶς δαμάσαι δύναται ἀνθρώπων· ἀκατάστατον κακόν, μεστὴ ἰοῦ θανατηφόρου), the words ἀκατάστατον κακόν form an apposition, practically speaking almost a kind of parenthesis, i.e.: "No-one among humans can tame the tongue; a chaotic evil, [it is] full of deadly poison". It is a substantivized neuter adjective and thus acts as a name, i.e. τὸ κακόν. Take a look at the BDAG entry for κακός:

 

"Subst. τὸ κακόν (the) evil (Susario Com. [VI BC] κακὸν γυναῖκες; AnthLG: fgm. iamb. adesp. 29 Diehl δῆμος ἄστατον κακόν; Ps.-Pla., Eryxias 8, 395e: opp. τὸ ἀγαθόν; Apollon. Rhod. 3, 129; Theocr. 14, 36; Plut., Lysander 18, 9 of ἄγνοια; Maximus Tyr. 24, 4a μέγιστον ἀνθρώπῳ κακὸν ἐπιθυμία ‘desire for more is humanity’s worst bane’; TestGad 3:1 [μῖσος]; Philo, Rer. Div. Her. 287 [λιμὸς] . . . κακὸν χεῖρον) of the tongue ἀκατάστατον κακόν Js 3:8"

 

In the 2Th 1:7-8 passage, there's no reason to connect the participle διδόντος with anything other than τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ as its natural antecedent (true, the following τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ makes for a redundancy, but that's not untypical of the kind of Greek we find in the NT). 

 

I don't have the syntax module, but for the first example, if there is a way to search on appositions, as Daniel suggested, that might get you a little further. The use of appositions in the NT is fairly frequent. 

 

I hope that helps!

Edited January 3, 2019 by Donald Cobb