Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 23:1 (NA 1972)
Article: Syntax In Exegesis
Author: K. L. McKay

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TynBul 23:1 (1972) p. 39

Syntax In Exegesis*

K. L. Mckay

* A paper read to the New Testament Study Group of the Tyndale Fellowship at Tyndale House, Cambridge, in July 1971.

The title of this paper might be more correctly expressed as Basic Syntax of the Greek Verb’, as its emphasis is mainly on aspect (Aktionsart) in the Greek verb. Many years ago I was told by a senior classical scholar that classicists have a duty to remind theologians to keep their feet on the ground. In aiming to fulfil that duty, it is only fair, to warn that, since I have become concerned with the Greek perfect, I have become something of an enthusiast for the emancipation of Greek syntax, and I may myself need reminding to keep my feet on the ground.

Syntax is the arrangement of words to form clauses, sentences, paragraphs. It is primarily a matter of relationships, and no part of it can be studied completely in isolation. It includes word order as well as inflexion and both may be significant at any point even though inflexion is usually the more important in Greek. Even when we know the words in a sentence any confusion we may have about their syntax may distort our understanding of their significance.

One of our problems in studying New Testament Greek syntax is the number of textual variants that make one just a little uncertain of a particular point. Where the manuscript evidence is divided between, say, perfect and aorist, one hesitates to expound so forcefully the significance of the reading in the text one happens to be using, especially if other editors have chosen the other reading. And of course, once an authoritative grammar contains the declaration that in this period the perfect is often confused with the aorist, most editors cease to bother to record alternatives of this kind in their apparatus

TynBul 23:1 (1972) p. 40

criticus. Yet the remarkable thing is the number of passages in which there is no serious doubt.

Another complication we have to face is that most, if not all, of the discourses recorded in the New Testament are not given in their full and unabridged form, and précis does have a tendency to distort syntax. On the other hand, in the Epistles, where we can expect to find the original fullness of exposition, we must recognize the possibility of anacoluthon due to the writer’s thoughts on a current problem racing ahead of his ability to communicate them, with the result that a sentence may change direction in mid-course.

A proposition may usually be expressed in a variety of ways, sometimes with no perceptible difference, sometimes with, only a greater or lesser degree of emphasis, sometimes with only a difference in the level of formality. A writer’s style i...

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