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The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

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4. <strong>The</strong> resorts of interpreters. Hendiadys.<br />

<strong>The</strong> form of speech to which recourse has most frequently been had<br />

here to put a figure into the words, is that which is called "HENDIADYS;"<br />

that is, the phrase in which one (hen) is presented by (dia) two (dys). That<br />

is to say, two nouns are used where one noun would answer, if the idea of<br />

the other were presented in an adjective form. Thus Virgil says: "We<br />

offered drink in bowls <strong>and</strong> gold;" that is, in golden bowls, or bowl-shaped<br />

gold. By this hendiadys, the Saviour is said here to have meant “spiritual<br />

water," or "the water-like Spirit."<br />

Now let us look at this "hendiadys" by which it is proposed to set<br />

aside the natural meaning of our Saviour's words. We remark:<br />

1. That after a careful search, we cannot find a solitary instance<br />

(leaving this out of question for a moment) in which it is supposed that the<br />

Saviour used the form of speech known as hendiadys. It was not<br />

characteristic of him.<br />

2. Neither is it characteristic of John the Evangelist, whose style is<br />

closely formed upon that class of our Lord's discourses which he records<br />

in his Gospel.<br />

3. Nor is it characteristic of the style of any of the New Testament<br />

writers. But three instances of it are cited in the entire New Testament by<br />

Glass in his Sacred Philology, <strong>and</strong> in every one of those three, the<br />

language is more easily interpreted without the hendiadys than with it.<br />

Winer, the highest authority on such a point, says, in regard to hendiadys<br />

in the New Testament: “<strong>The</strong> list of examples alleged does not, when<br />

strictly examined furnish one that is unquestionable." 348<br />

4. <strong>The</strong> passage in Matt. iii. 11: "He shall baptize you with the Holy<br />

Ghost <strong>and</strong> with fire," is the only one in which it is pretended that a parallel<br />

is found with the one before us; but we have shown in a former part of this<br />

Dissertation, that there is no hendiadys here; the fire <strong>and</strong> the Holy Ghost<br />

are distinct subjects. <strong>The</strong> persons addressed were neither to be baptized<br />

exclusively with the Holy Spirit-like fire, or the fire-like Holy Spirit, but<br />

just as our Lord says, with both; with the Holy<br />

348 Gramm. of N. T. Diction. Transl. by Masson. Smith, English & Co. 1859. p. 652. Seventh Ed. by Lünemann.<br />

(Thayer.) Andover. Draper. 1869. p. 630.

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