TIP OF THE DAY 44: Name: Grammatical relationships

MJ. Smith · October 30

link to next post TIP OF THE DAY 45: Name: Squinting modifiers - Logos Forums

Since the forum change has been delayed, I've started adding these posts to the previous tip list. See L/V 10 Tip of the Day

QUESTION: What grammatical relationships are visible in the Grammatical relationships section of the Bible Word Study?

Skill: Bible Word Study grammatical relationships section

SOFTWARE: from the documentation:

Grammatical Relationships Section

This section displays words that are grammatically related to the guide word as it is used in various contexts, with concordance instances grouped under the various constructions in which they appear.

Results are grouped by grammatical relationships such as "Subject of" and "With Preposition." Each group displays a list of lemmas, each of which can be expanded to reveal verses in English and the original language that feature the grammatically related word. Each lemma entry also displays a pronunciation link , transliteration, gloss, and a count of occurrences.

The abbreviation for the syntax analysis (clause visualization) resource used is displayed on the section header.

Hover over the section header to reveal the Settings menu. Available options in the section settings include:

• Select the display format.

• by related word is selected by default and is the display format described above.

• verses displays Bible references grouped by grammatical construction.

• Select the resource to search. Available options are listed at the bottom of the pop-up below a Find box that allows users to quickly find a particular resource.

The Grammatical Relationships section can be added to a Bible Word Study.^{^[1]}

ANSWER: I can find no explicit list of all the relationships that may appear in the section. For our three lemmas for the person Paul the apostle, the relationships appearing are:

Subject of … This is also a grammatical role in the clause search.
Object of … This is also a grammatical role in the clause search.
Used adjectivally
Modified by adjective …
Indirect object of … This is also a grammatical role in the clause search.
Addressee of …
With preposition …

QUESTION: How reliable is the grammatical relationships section?

SOFTWARE: The grammatical relationships section is consistent within the theory you requested (Cascadia or Open Text) but the two options may not agree with each other.

ANSWER: example of a difference.

Open a Bible Word Study.
Set the lemma to Σαῦλος
Use the option on the Bible Word Study tab to duplicate the tab.
Drag one of the BWS into position beside the other.
Set both BWS so that an expanded Grammatical Relationships is at the top of the panel.
On mouse over the heading bar of the Grammatical Relationships section, you can make settings visible.
Set one occurrence to OTGGR (Open-Text) and the other to CSGGR (Cascadia)
Make sure that both BWS have updated their data.
Notice Cascadia has a use as an indirect object; Open Text does not.

Which one is right? They both are. The theory behind their tagging and, perhaps, even the underlying text is not the same. One of the most common problem one sees in the forums is the user believing whatever they have showing is the one and only “real” answer rather than recognizing that the data is simply one of many classification schemes to help you understand the text.

Identifying such discrepancies is a good way to find questions to ask yourself/research when studying a passage.

QUESTION: Have a bit of fun asking various AI assisted searches or chatbots “In the New Testament, is Σαῦλος attested as an indirect object?”

ANSWER: Using the Logos/Verbum smart search (which suggested I meant “arrested” rather than “attested”.) Note that changing the form of the question to one more amenable to the Logos/Verbum environment did not improve the results.

The provided articles do not contain any specific information about the use of Σαῦλος as an indirect object in the New Testament. The articles primarily discuss textual criticism, manuscript preservation, and general aspects of New Testament Greek, but do not address the specific grammatical usage of Σαῦλος.[2] Given the lack of relevant information in these articles, it would be advisable to try a different query or consult more specific grammatical resources for this information.

From Perplexity:

To answer your question about whether Σαῦλος (Saulos, meaning “Saul”) is attested as an indirect object in the New Testament, I examined the Greek-English concordance provided in the search results. Based on this information, we can conclude:

Σαῦλος does appear in the dative case, which is typically used for indirect objects in Greek. Specifically:

In Acts 9:24, we see “Σαύλῳ” (Saulō) in the dative case:”but their plot was made known to Saul (Saulō | Σαύλῳ | dat sg masc).”

In this instance, Σαῦλος is indeed functioning as an indirect object, as the information (the plot) is being made known “to Saul.”

It’s worth noting that while this example shows Σαῦλος as an indirect object, the name appears in various other grammatical cases throughout the New Testament, including:

- Nominative (Σαῦλος): As the subject of sentences

- Accusative (Σαῦλον): As the direct object

- Genitive (Σαύλου): Indicating possession or association

The dative usage, while present, is less common than these other cases for Σαῦλος in the New Testament[3].

From ChatGPT:

Yes, the Greek name *Σαῦλος* (Saul) appears as an indirect object in several instances in the New Testament. One clear example is in **Acts 9:4**:

καὶ πεσὼν ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν ἤκουσεν φωνὴν λέγουσαν αὐτῷ· Σαοὺλ Σαούλ, τί με διώκεις;

Here, *Σαοὺλ* (a variant spelling of *Σαῦλος*) is used as a vocative, but the construction around it implies an indirect address to him. Other examples appear in Acts 13:9 and Acts 22:7 where *Σαῦλος* takes an indirect role within a dative construction, aligning with the requirements of indirect objects in Koine Greek syntax.

These instances demonstrate that *Σαῦλος* is used in various syntactical structures, including that of an indirect object or in dative indirect constructions, underscoring its flexibility in grammatical function.

From Gemini:

To determine if “Σαῦλος” (Saul) is used as an indirect object in the New Testament, we need to examine its grammatical role in the specific contexts where it appears.

An indirect object typically receives the action of a verb indirectly, often indicating the recipient of the action or the person to whom something is done. In Greek grammar, the indirect object is often marked by the dative case.

While “Σαῦλος” is frequently mentioned in the New Testament, particularly in the book of Acts, it is generally used as a direct object or subject, not as an indirect object.

To definitively answer your question, we would need to analyze specific verses where “Σαῦλος” appears. If you can provide a particular verse or passage, I can examine the Greek grammar and determine its role in that specific context.

However, based on a general understanding of the usage of “Σαῦλος” in the New Testament, it is unlikely that it functions as an indirect object.

I hope I have convinced you that you know less than you think you do?

QUESTION: What is the relationship between BWS Grammatical Relationships and BWS Example Uses?

Skill: Bible Word Study example uses section

SOFTWARE: from the documentation:

Example Uses Section

The Example Uses guide section shows examples of how a word is used in different verses. The panel displays biblical texts aligned by the guide word and grouped grammatically by part of speech. It appears in the Bible Word Study guide.

Click English or Greek/Hebrew to choose the section’s display language.^{^[4]}

ANSWER: The available theories (Cascadia, Open Text) and the Grammatical relationships match in the two sections. Example Uses is a subset of instances and data.

Note: the BWS Clause participant section is deliberately ignore in this discussion.

^{^[1]} Verbum Help (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2024).

[2] Ken Penner and Michael S. Heiser, “Old Testament Greek Pseudepigrapha with Morphology” (Lexham Press, 2008).and Dirk Jongkind, ed., The Greek New Testament: Apparatus (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017), vii.and Dirk Jongkind, ed., The Greek New Testament (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017), vii.and The New Testament in the Original Greek: Byzantine Textform 2005, with Morphology. (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2006), xxi.and Albert L. Lukaszewski, Mark Dubis, and J. Ted Blakley, The Lexham Syntactic Greek New Testament: SBL Edition (Lexham Press, 2011).

[3] https://www.billmounce.com/greek-dictionary/saulos and https://hc.edu/news-and-events/2016/07/01/paul-witness-r-esurrection-jesus/ and https://www.bibleodyssey.org/articles/paul/ and https://bible.org/article/participle and https://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4275

^{^[4]} Verbum Help (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2024).