jow@pacbell.com (Jeff Westman) (11/13/90)
In article <Nov.6.03.26.36.1990.2702@athos.rutgers.edu> I wrote: >>John 20:28 "And Thomas answered and said unto him [Jesus] 'My Lord and >> my God'" > >An interesting side-note here. When Thomas said 'My Lord and my God', he >used a greek construction called the 'Gransville Sharp Rule'. I don't >remember the exact "rules" involved (I could look them up if anyone is >interested -- email me), but when the word "and" is joining two phrases of >like tense and mood, one emphasises the other. In other words, in Thomas' >astonishment, he exclaims to Jesus: You are my Lord __AND__ my God. This is >agreat proof of Christ's deity to other faiths. There's another identical >construction (emphasizing Christ's deity) in Titus, I believe (I don't have my >Bible with me). Let me mention, too that this Gransville Sharp Rule is >standard greek -- not some special rule just because the Bible is involved -- >the same emphasis would still be intact in any greek literature (eg, Homer). When I wrote this reply, I later realized how significant this greek rule is and want to support it. As I said above, knowing this basic rule of greek grammer won't necessarily make either one of us a greek scholar, but surely, it will give us more faith and assurance to love the One who first loved us. >From the classic work by Dana & Mantey, "A Manual Grammer of the Greek New Testament" (The MacMillan Company, c. 1955, pp. 147): The following rule by Granville Sharp of a century back still proves to be true: "When the copulative kai [gk. ka!, usually "and"] connects two nouns of the same case, if the article o [gk. , "the"] or any of its cases precedes the first of the said nouns or participles, and is not repeated before the second noun or participle, the latter always relates to the same person that is expressed or described bt the first noun or participle; i.e., it denotes a farther description of the first-named person." Of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Pt. 2:20) The article here indicates that Jesus is both Lord and Savior. So in 2 Pt. 1:1 "of God and our Savior Jesus Christ" means that Jesus is our God and Savior. After the same manner Tit. 2:13, "of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ", asserts that Jesus is the great God and Savior. -- Jeff