Full Text for An Application of Case Grammar to Two New Testament Passages (Text)

CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY Announcement: Third Annual Symposium ............................................ on the Lutheran Confessions 27 1 Rabbinical Ct'ritinss of rhe EarI! Christian Centuries and Sew Testament inter-pretarion ....... Ravmond F. Surburg 273 I God's Ministers, I heir Calls. and Their ................ Relationship to Each Other Vetnon H. flarle>- 286 ! ... The Case of the Lost Luther Reference Biarne W.Teigen 295 I The State of Evangelism in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod ............ Ern-in J . Kolb 3 10 I A n .4pplication of Case Grammar to Th.0 , .................... Nen Testament Passages .Thec>dore Mueller 320 ............................... A Reformation Hi.mn Douglas Judisch 326 : ........... ' 7- Opinion of the Department 01' Systematic Theolog), I Homiletical Studies .............................................................. 138 173 Book Reviews ...................................................................... - An Application of Case Grammar to Two New Testament Passages Theodore Mueller I. Mark 1:4. The Baptism of Repentance What is a "baptism of repentance," an expression which occurs several times in the Gospels and Acts? In a baptism of water, water is the means used for the sacred act; in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, we understand the outpouring of the .Holy Spirit; and in the baptism of John, John is the agent performing the sacrament. But repentance does not fit into any of these categories; it cannot be the means or the agent of baptism. The interpretation centers around the genitive metanoias which modifies the noun baptisma. What is the nature of this modification? Commentators1 and traditional grammarians2 have labelled the genitive as a qualitative or descriptive genitive: "a baptism connected with repentance,"J "symbolic of, and accompanied by repentance."4 Further elaborating on the genitive, Lenski makes it a "condition"5 for baptism, an obligation of man before receiving forgiveness. Such an emphasis, however, introduces synergistic overtones. The resultant translations reflect this in- terpretation: "Turn away from your sins and be baptized and God will forgive your sins" (Good News); "a baptism in token of repentance, for the forgiveness of sins" (New English Bible); "baptism as the mark of a complete change of heart and of the for- giveness of sins" (Phillips). In these translations man's acting precedes the forgiveness, the same relationship as when mother says: "Eat your carrots and you'll get some cake." The well-known linguist Eugene Nida describes his analysis as a process of transforming an expression back into the presumed "underlying kernel or.core structure."b In reference to the expres- sion under discussion he states: "A possible combination of-ker- nels which might be adequate for transfer to some receptor language could be formulated as: John preached that the people should repent and be baptized so that God would forgive the evil they had done.'7 In this analysis note how forgiveness is predicated on man's repentance through the conjunction so that. Nida's interpretation, nevertheless, rests on the same gram- matical analysis as that of the traditional grammarians. An Application 32 1 Recently a form of linguistic scholarship known as Case Grammar has taken a somewhat different approach to language analysis. It assumes that specific syntactic relationships are fundamental to every expression. Furthermore the words we read may be the result of transformations which hide or obscure the particular relationship. These basic relationships and their trans- formations will first be illustrated from clear and uncontroverted Greek passages and then from English before applying this knowledge to the passage under discussion. Scripture states that God justifies the sinner and stresses His grace, Christ, His redemption, or His blood as the cause or the motive for the acts of justification, a syntactic relationship which is expressed through the dative (Rorn. 3:24), through dia plus the genitive (Rom. 3:24), or en plus dative (Rorn. 5:9). Man receives justification by faith as the means or the instrument, a relationship expressed through the dative (Rorn. 3:28), or by ek or dia plus the genitive (Rorn. 3:30). While the preposition ek may place more emphasis on the circumstances under which, rather than the means by which, man is declared righteous, yet by linking the two prepositions St. Paul equates the two expressions in their instrumental relationship, just as Luther accumulates the prepositions "mit, durch, and unter" to express the same syntactic relationship for the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper. These examples illustrate the fundamental syntactic relationships bet ween t & verb and the various noun phrases describing the act of justification. It is at this point that grammar and meaning coincide, that is, that grammar is the tool expressing the relationship of the various concepts contained in the words. These relationships are lin- guistic universals, that is, relationships which are common to all languages, and make a translation from the one to the other possible. Greek can transform these fundamental expressions in two ways. The governingverb is often changed into a noun, dikaio5to dikaiosunc while the same prepositional phrases are retained under the governance of the noun and express the same basic rela- tions hips. Thus the instrumental relationship of faith is expressed by ek or dia plus the genitive: dikaiosunFdiapiste5s (Rom. 3:22), h4 ek pistecs dikaiosune' (Rom. 10:6), an expression which has become a formula for righteousness. Secondly, Greek can trans- form a noun plus a prepositional phrase into a noun plus a genitive, dikaiosunF te's piste6s (Rorn. 4: 1 1). The genitive phrase no longer expresses the fundamental relationship explicitly, as did its foregoing prepositional phrase, but merely indicates a vague dependence on the noun. To the reader at that time such genitive phrases presented no difficulty; no doubt, he readily 322 CONCORDlA THEOLOGlCAL QUARTERLY assumed the fundamental relationship as the native speaker of English does in his language, as will be shown subsequently. In the parlance of linguistics, the fundamental syntactic relation- ships are called the deep level structure, while by contrast the surface level structure consists of the sequence of spoken or written words which may or may not express the precise syntactic relations hip depending on the various transformations which have been applied to it. While the deep structures are language universals, the surface structures are said to be language-specific; that is, each language has its own peculiar ways of expression. These concepts will be illustrated once more from English. Expressions like shoe sale, garage sale, fire sale, promotion sale, ! charity sale. have the same surface structure, a governing noun "sale" plus a dependant noun. Yet it is obvious that a "garage sale" does not sell garages, nor does a "fire sale" sell fire, as might be inferred from "shoe sale." On the deep level the syntactic rela- tionship differs in the various expressions. They are assumed to be transformations from more explicit phrases, such as a sale selling shoes, a sale occurring at a garage, a sale because of a fire, a sale for the purpose of charity or promotion. A foreigner, of course, unfamiliar with English, will have difficulty understand- ing the former expressions, particularly if his language does not permit the same nominal structure at the surface level. He fails to see the precise syntactic relationship at the deep level. Toget her with the exegetes we experience the same difficulty with similar Greek expressions. After this grammatical digression, what is the meaning of "baptism of repentance," or better, what is the specific syntactic relationship presumed to exist for the genitive at the deep level? John gives the key in Matthew 3: 11, baptizc en hudari eis metanoian, for the purpose of, or, with the result of, a change of attitude (repentance); a purpose or a result relationship is expressed through the preposition eis. The genitive metanoias, viewed as a transformation from eis metanoian, has, therefore, the same relationship as the subsequent prepositional phrase eis aphesin hamartion; both a change of attitude and the remission of sins are stated as the purpose or the result of baptismand preach- ing. While not a very common relationship, a purpose or result relationship is found in a number of genitive phrases as the con- text or other parallel expressoins suggest: dia loutrou palig- genesias (Tim. 3 5 ) is the washing for the purpose of; or resulting in regeneration. Likewise in eis anastasin zoes (Jn. 5:29) the genitive z G s expresses the purpose of the resurrection. In Luke 19:42 the expression ta pros eirZnFn states the purpose relation- ship through the preposition pros, an expression which St. Paul An Application 323 has transformed into a genitive phrase la tE eirFnE (Rom. 14: 19): the things which result in peace. Interpreting the genitive metanoias as a purpose or result rela- tionship, moreover, fits into the context of the Gospels, which preaching and baptism are said to produce a change of attitude, and of Acts 19:4 where baptism alone is linked to it. The passage under discussion, then, may be translated into English thus: "John preached and baptized for (the purpose of) a change of attitude and the forgiveness of sins." A better and freer transla- tion might be this: "John preached and baptized to achieve repentance and convey the forgiveness of sins." Traditional grammar analyzes the surface phenomena. It tries to attach a meaning to the casein which the word appears: "What is the meaning of this genitive?" Case grammar analyzes the syntactic relationship, that is, its deep structure, a relationship which may not be apparent on the surface level: "What is the precise relationship for which the genitive case merely indicates a vague dependence on another noun?" From Matthew 3: 1 I a pur- pose or result relationship is inferred. This approach leads to a meaning more in line with Scripture: conversion and forgiveness result from Word and Sacrament. 11. Luke 214. The Hymn of the Angels When scholarship established what is believed to be the original text for the angelic choir, that is, when the dative anthrcpois of the Textus Receptus was replaced by the prepositional phrase en anthrzpois, and the nominative eudokia by the genitive, the meaning of what the angels sang became a problem for us speakers of a modem language. Commentators8 interpret the prepositional phrase en anthr5poi.s as a modifier of eire'nz indicating to whom peace is extended. The word order makes this analysis most plausible to us, speakers of a language in which word order is an essential syntactic signal. The genitive eudokias is seen as a qualifier (genitive of quality) modifying anthropois, and specifying what kind of men receive His peace. Alford states it succinctly: "The only admissible rendering is Among men of God's goodpleasure, i.e. among the elect people of God.'V The various translations follow this interpretation, summarized in the RSV rendition: "Peace among men with whom He is pleased." A theological problem, however, arises if the genitive "limits" anthrGp~is.~O Just as the expression "all people who believe" refers to a group of people characterized and set apart from the others by their faith, so here the people who have God's favor indicates a group of people separate from the rest of humanity, 324 CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY "the elect."l And indeed this is the interpretation of the Editorial Committee of the United Bible Society Greek New Testament as Metzger records it: "At the birth of the Saviour God's peace rests on those whom He has chosen in accord with His good pleasure."'2 Such a limiting genitive, however, implies a denial of God's universal grace which, according to Scripture, is extended to all people through Christ (Tit. 2:11, John 3:16). It appears more reasonable, in fact, to associate the preposi- tional phrase en anrhropois with eudokias and to interpret the genitive as standing in an origin-cause relationship linked to eirgne. We have already seen that associating a prepositional phrase with a governing noun is a common occurrence and that Greek frequently transforms a verb and its complement into a noun which retains the same complementation as the verb. The verb eudokeo' governs a prepositional phrase consisting in en plus the dative as its complement: en soi eudokeSa (Luke 3:22: " I am well pleased with You"), the voice of the Father at the baptism of Jesus. From this construction the nominal transformation eudokia en tini is inferred, meaning "good will for some one." Such a nominal transformation is assumed to be the basis for the Greek phrase under discussion. It does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament but is found in the LXX; Sirach 39: 18 has en prostagmati autou pasa he eudokia, "his entire delight with His commandment." Thus, the meaning of the phrase in Luke must be: blGod's] good pleasure with mankind." Linking the genitive eudokias with eircne as an indication of cause or origin is admittedly not a common relationship. How- ever, it was the interpretation of Origen. Alford, who reports this fact, calls it a "curious connection" which "might be admissible as a matter of mere construction."~3 It is a transformation from the noun plus a prepositional phrase with apo. For instance, the phrase eirenFapo theou(Rom. 1 :7), "peace from God," a frequent greeting in the epistles, is the equivalent of eirFne tou theou (Phil. 4:7), usually translated as "the peace of God." However, if the genitive just mentioned were a qualifier to peace, its meaning would be "the divine peace," that is, a peace which is not a human experience, which is obviously not the case. Other genitive phrases indicating origin-cause relationships can be found in the New Testament: hupak0F.n pisteik (Rom. 1 :5) is "the obedience which springs from faith.*l4 In 1 Thess. 1:3 three such genitives occur in the same verse: "work coming from faith, labor originating in love, and endurance resulting from hope." On the basis of the foregoing grammatical discussion, it is sug- An Application 325 gested that the message of the angelic choir should be translated as follows: Glory to God in the highest And on earth peace coming from His good pleasure with mankind, a freer rendering of the last line wouId be: "And on earth peace be- cause He is well pleased with mankind." This interpretation can also be defended from an artistic point of view. The hymn of the angels is poetry and is printed as such in Aland's edition of the Greek New Testament. There is a chiastic word order: doxa corresponds to eircne'and ev hupsistois parallels epiges. Further- more, to the5 in the first line corresponds en anthriipois eudokias in the second, a goal relztionship which is parallel to a source reIationship. And theos is a necessary echo in eudokia since admittedly it is God who shows good will towards men, regard- less of the grammatical interpretation. Language is the only means by which God has revealed His thoughts to us. It is also the only way by which we communicate with each other. Communication may break down just as much through our ignorance of how language works as our lack of knowledge of uncommon words. The concept of transformation from an underlying structure to what is written offers a fresh approach to some of the difficulties we may find in the wording of Scripture. The author is professor at the University of Kentucky and has served as a guest professor at the seminary