Exegetical Fallacies - D. A. Carson

third-class conditionals are future-referring; I was wrong to suggest so easy an alignment with the verb
tenses of the apodosis. For example, in Mark 3:24-25 Jesus says, "If a kingdom is divided against itself
[third-class conditional], that kingdom cannot stand (ou Stivatai [present tense] ataOtjvat [oil dvnatai
stathertai]). If a house is divided against itself [thirdclass conditional], that house cannot stand (ou Suvi
rtat [future tense] fl OlKra OtaO>>vai [oil dcnesetai he oikia stathe- nai])." Clearly, "Jesus is not saving
that whereas a divided kingdom is currently unable to stand a house will only fall in the future."17 Two or
three explanations of the change of tense in the verb Svvapat (dvnatnai) are possible, but the temporal one
won't work. Similarly in Matthew 18:13: "If he finds it [thirdclass conditional] he rejoices"-where the
present tense in the apodosis clearly refers to action that is future with reference to the time of the
protasis, not contemporaneous with it. Numerous other examples could be given.
FIGURE 4
2. The article: preliminary considerations
The definite article in Greek is extraordinarily difficult to classify exhaustively. I suspect that some
uses are determined more by the "feel" of the speaker or writer of the language than by unambiguous
principles. Nevertheless some guiding principles exist; and many errors are made by those who ignore
them or fail to understand them. In particular, it is a fallacy to suppose that because the Greek text has an
article, the English translation must have one, or because the Greek text is anarthrous at some point, the
English translation must follow suit. Unlike English, Greek has no indefinite article; and its definite
article often has functions widely different from the use in English of either the definite or the indefinite
article. At the risk of oversimplification, we can schematize the fundamental uses of the Greek article as
in figure 4. The chart is reasonably self explanatory. One use of the definite article is to specify, to make a
substantive definite. The corresponding anarthrous usage leaves the substantive indefinite, not so much
specifying it as leaving it "qualitative." The second general use of the article, however, is the generic
(e.g., ai;roS o epyatrJ; toU In Oou avtou [axios ho ergates tou misthou autou]) [Luke 10:7], lit. "the
worker is worthy of his wages," but English idiom prefers "a worker is worthy of his wages"; the
corresponding anarthrous usage suggests the substantive is rrongeneric; that is, individualized (e.g., "a
[certain] worker"). Many of the uses of the Greek article are subsets of one of these two general
categories. For example, the anaphoric usage is a subset of (a); the preference of abstract nouns to retain
the article can be considered a subset of (c).
What immediately stands out from this table is that there is a surprising conceptual crossover,
schematized in figure 5. That is, the articular usage under use 1 has certain conceptual affinities with the
anarthrous usage under use 2; and the anarthrous usage under use I has certain conceptual affinities with
the articular usage under use 2. The very least that this means is that the exegete must be careful regarding
conclusions drawn from the mere presence or absence of an article. Apart from certain idioms, only
context and the feel gained by experience in the Greek text will serve as adequate control.
Grammarians, of course, understand these things; but it is surprising how many commentators do not