[B-Greek] "monon" - I Cor. 15:19
Ken Penner
ken.penner at acadiau.ca
Tue Mar 27 14:56:51 EST 2007
Pace Anthony, MONON does not modify any nominal element, since it does not agree in gender, number, and case with anything else. It unambiguously modifies the verb (having hoped).
If in this life in Christ we have only hoped ...
Ken
Ken M. Penner, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies,
Acadia Divinity College,
Wolfville, Nova Scotia,
Canada B4P 2R6.
(902)585-2213
http://purl.org/net/kmpenner/
> -----Original Message-----
> From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
> [mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Dave
> Sent: March 27, 2007 4:38 PM
> To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: [B-Greek] "monon" - I Cor. 15:19
>
> Hello. I'm new to this list. Thank you for having me.
>
> I have a question about the translation of the first part of
> I Cor. 15:19.
> As I understand it, there are four grammatical possibilities
> as to where to place the word "monon" (alone/only) in this clause:
>
> 1. "If in this LIFE ONLY we have hoped in Christ...." (Monon modifies
> "life.")
> 2. "If in this life we have had ONLY HOPE in Christ...."
> (Monon modifies
> "hope.")
> 3. "If in this life we have hoped ONLY in CHRIST...." (Monon modifies
> "Christ.")
> 4. "If in this life WE ALONE have hoped in Christ...."
> (Monon modifies
> "alone.")
>
> The translators have precluded options #3 & #4. My question
> is this: Is the rejection of those two options purely for
> _contextual_ and _theological_ reasons? Or are there also
> _grammatical_ reasons to preclude options #3 & #4?
>
> In other words, if someone were to walk into a room and blurt
> out, without any context, the Greek sentence, "In this life
> we have hoped in Christ alone," what would be the
> grammatically most natural/probable meaning of that sentence
> with no context? Are all four of the possible meanings
> equally likely from a grammatical standpoint? Or are some of
> them more grammatically "awkward" than others? How would you
> arrange the above four context-less translations from
> grammatically least likely to grammatically most likely?
>
> Thank you in advance for your help.
>
> Dave :)
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