JAMES 2:24 - Chafer Theological Seminary

James 2:24: Retranslation Required 5
Lexical Study
The outline of BDAG’s pertinent adjectival uses follows:
1. adj.—a. only, alone—a. used w. [stative] verbs. . . . 3
b. used w. a noun [as an attributive adjective]. . . . 4
g. w. a negative and w. ajllav foll. . . . 5
d. movno" qeov". . . . the only God. . . .
b. alone, deserted, helpless. . . . 6
c. isolated, by itself. . . . 7
Each of BDAG’s adjectival classifications involves attributive
or predicate adjectives. Both require the adjective and its
substantive to agree in case, number, and gender. Only the
accusative-neuter-singular form (monon) can function adverbially.
3 Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax
of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 40, explains that “the
passives of some transitive verbs” act as stative verbs in predicate nominative
clauses. Robertson, Grammar, 656, “As further interesting examples of the
predicate adjective, note. . . movno" (Lu. 24:8; cf. Mt. 14:23), etc.”
4 BDAG, 658, lists John 6:22 as an example. Monos here is attributive: His
disciples alone had gone away.
5 Ibid., 658, cites Matthew 4:4: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceeds from the mouth of God. F. Blass and A. Debrunner, A Greek
Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, trans. and
rev. Robert W. Funk (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961), 233,
“Ouj. . . ajlla also means ‘not so much. . . as’ in which the first element is not
entirely negated, but only toned down. . . .” Man lives by more than bread alone.
6 This is a double accusative of object and complement. Wallace, Grammar,
182, says that in this construction “one accusative substantive is the direct object
of the verb and the other accusative (either noun, adjective, participle, or
infinitive) complements the object in that it predicates something about it. The
complement may be substantival or adjectival [emphasis mine].” Ibid., 184,
indicates that a complementary adjective here is always a predicate adjective.
Ibid., also says, “. . .one should normally translate the construction with ‘as,’ ‘to
be,’ or ‘namely’ between the two accusatives.” BDAG, 659, gives John 8:29 as
an example: The Father has not left Me [to be] alone.
7 BDAG’s only example is John 12:24: it [a grain of wheat] remains alone. This
resembles a predicate adjective. The verb menw (“remains”) may function as a
stative verb (cf. Wallace, Grammar, 40, n. 11).