TheologyThoughts

Talking about Granville Sharp, of course. The following exchange on one of the lists:

From the Alpha and Omega webpage is this quote;

Basically, Granville Sharp's rule states that when you have two nouns, which are not proper names (such as Cephas, or Paul, or Timothy), which are describing a person, and the two nouns are connected by the word "and," and the first noun has the article ("the") while the second does not, *both nouns are referring to the same person*. In our texts, this is demonstrated by the words "God" and "Savior" at Titus 2:13 and 2 Peter 1:1. "God" has the article, it is followed by the word for "and," and the word "Savior" does not have the article. Hence, both nouns are being applied to the same person, Jesus Christ. This rule is exceptionless. One must argue solely on theological grounds against these passages. There is truly no real grammatical objection that can be raised. Not that many have not attempted to do so, and are still trying. However, the evidence is overwhelming in favor of the above interpretation. Lets look at some of the evidence from the text itself.

From later in the same article, as Granville Sharp himself formulated the rules:

"When the copulative kai connects two nouns of the same case [viz. nouns (either substantive or adjective, or participles) of personal description, respecting office, dignity, affinity, or connexion, and attributes, properties, or qualities, good or ill,] if the article ho, or any of its cases, precedes the first of the said nouns or participles, and is not repeated before the second noun or participle, the latter always relates to the same person that is expressed or described by the first noun or participle: i.e., it denotes a farther description of the first named person."

http://vintage.aomin.org/GRANVILL.html

Now, a careful reading of how how Sharp formulated his rule demonstrates why White thinks it's exceptionless.

I have been arguing that Sharp's rule is simply a subset of how Greek generally treats the use of the article. From Goodwin's Grammar -- The references is William A. Goodwin, A Greek Grammar (Boston: Ginn & Co., 1900), p. 208...

So, how would Granville have written in Greek, in answer to the question, 'who is in the hallway'?

It is the King and a general.

What evidence is there that such sentences cannot be constructed in
Greek? If they can, then what of his "Rule"?

I would argue that it is context and semantic content of the words themselves which indicate that a a direct identification is being made between the two or if two different individuals are being named, so that in your "the gardener and a rabbit" example, it is unlikely (unless the context would indicate otherwise) that the rabbit and the gardener are one and the same. But let's look at your "King and a general" example, since that it a likely sort of thing to be said in ancient Greek, and the semantic content of the words allows the two nouns the same referent:


ὁ βασιλεὺς καὶ στρατηγός (hO BASILEUS KAI STRATHGOS) would normally be read as "The king and general" referring to the same person. It could, if the context indicated so, however, be read as "The King and a general." In most cases, there would be no ambiguity, but let's say that the author really wants to make sure that you get "The King and a general." There are several ways to communicate the idea:

In Classical Greek (and a construction that Luke uses) ὁ βασιλεύς τε καὶ στρατηγός (hO BASILEUS TE KAI STRATHGOS), "Both the king and a general," or more likely in Koine καὶ ὁ βασιλεὺς καὶ στρατηγός (KAI hO BASILEUS KAI STRATHGOS).

Another way would be to paraphrase: ὁ βασιλεὺς καὶ μετ' αὐτοῦ στρατηγός (hO BASILEUS KAI MET' AUTOU STRATHGOS), The king and a general with him (or some other such prepositional phrase).

Yet another option, using the indefinite pronoun τις (TIS) as the equivalent of the indefinite article: ὁ βασιλεὺς καί τις στρατηγός (hO BASILEUS KAI TIS STRATHGOS), The king and a [certain, but not necessarily known] general.

So, yes, there are certainly ways to communicate this in Greek, and not violate Sharp's, ah, observation.