Greek resource for a task?

G'morning,

Is there a resource, or a way within Logos itself, to help me figure out which noun a pronoun is referring to? For example:

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes on those who are disobedient. 7 Therefore do not be associated with them. Eph 5:6–7.

I'd like to be able to tell what "them" refers back to (empty words? disobedient people? etc). I have the Original Languages library, the Scholar's Library, and Runge's HDGNT bundle.

Any places I can look to nail something like this down (I'm not just asking this because of the Ephesians passage - but it's my current example)?

Blessings,

Brian

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NetworkGeek

Hi Brian,

Here are some thoughts how to research this. One of the first things I like to do is look at Syntax resources to see what I can learn. If you open up the Cascadia Graphs of the NT, you will see on the line where "with them" is in Eph 5.7 that it has correctly flagged it as a pronoun. Hover over the "pron", and you notice it says that the referent (who it refers to) is found through one of two contexts - in other words, can only be determined through syntax. So that would turn me to research in Commentaries.

You have two choices here - you can just search for <Eph 5.7> in your favorite Commentary or Collection of Commentaries to see what you can learn. Second, if you would like to stay more at the discussion of the language level, I would look at more Exegetical-oriented commentaries. One good example is Word Biblical Commentary Vol. 42, which says it's referring to people rather than vices, and it gives further references.

Since the referent cannot be determined either than through context, I think Commentaries may be your best bet. Hope that helps, maybe others will chip in with some ideas!

Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :)

Looking in Lexham High Definition Greek New Testament (HDGNT), can display morphology and Louw-Nida numbers along with manuscript:

Pronouns tend to agree with antecedent nouns in gender and number; noticed two possibilities for "them" (Plural Masculine): "the sons" and "empty words", which may be related when pondering questions of Who deceives (the sons of disobedience) and How deception done (with empty words). Observation: "the sons" are a closer antecedent. Louw-Nida pop-up for "them" indicates contextual reference to people. Scholar's library (and above) include Robertson's "Word Pictures in the Greek New Testament"; Scholar's Gold (and above) includes United Bible Societies (UBS) Translation Handbooks.

Keep Smiling [:)]

George Somsel

I'd like to be able to tell what "them" refers back to (empty words? disobedient people? etc). I have the Original Languages library, the Scholar's Library, and Runge's HDGNT bundle.

You have already been given some advice regarding agreement (technical term: concord). Here the αὑτῶν agrees in number and gender with both κενοῖς λόγοις and τοὺς υἱοὺς … and could therefore refer to either. The general rule, however, is that a pronoun usually refers to the nearer object which in this case would be τοὐς υἱοὺς τῆς ἀπειθείας.