.……….IV. When a Whole Clause is omitted in a Connected Passage.
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……………2. The Ellipsis of a latter clause, called Anantapodoton, i.e., without apodosis.*
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* Apodosis, Greek ἀπόδοσις, a giving back again: hence, it is the consequent clause.
The former clause is called the Protasis (πρότασις, to stretch before).
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It is a hypothetical proposition without the consequent clause.
Gen. 30:27 —“And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found favour in thine eyes [remain with me: for] I have learned by experience that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake.”
2 Sam. 2:27 —“And Joab said [to Abner], As God liveth, unless thou hadst spoken
[the words which gave the provocation (see verse 14)], surely then in the morning
the people had gone up (marg. gone away) every one from following his brother.”
2 Sam. 5:6-8 —The Ellipsis here involves a retranslation of this difficult passage:— “And the king and his men went to Jerusalem, unto the Jebusites, the inhabitants
of the land: which spake unto David, saying,† Thou shalt not come in hither, for
(or but, כִּי אִם, kee eem, see Psa. 1:3, 4; “ for,”; Prov. 23:18; Lam. 5:22) the blind and lame shall drive thee away (so Coverdale) by saying (לֵאמֹר, laimōr, saying, margin), David shall not come in hither. Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion; the same is the city of David. And David said on that day, Whosoever getteth up by the Tsinnor,‡ and smiteth the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind, who hate David’s soul
(R.V. margin), he shall be chief or captain, because they (the blind and the lame)
had said, He shall not come into the house (A.V. margin),” or citadel.
† Both the A.V. and the R.V. transpose the following two sentences.
‡ בַּ’לִנּוֹר (betsinnōr)* in, or by the Tsinnor, which was an underground watercourse, recently discovered by Sir Charles Warren. See his Recovery of Jerusalem, pp. 107, 109, 124.
* See footnote page 53.
The Ellipsis is supplied from 1 Chron. 11:6; and thus, with one or two simple emendations, the whole passage is made clear.
It would seem that the citadel was so strong that the Jebusites put their blind and lame there, who defended it by merely crying out, “David shall not come in hither.”
Matt. 6:25 —“Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
[and if God vouchsafes the greater, how much more that which is less].”
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.Matt. 8:9 —“For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it [how much more art Thou, who art God, able to command, or to speak the word only that my servant may recover].”
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.Mark 11:32 —“But if we shall say, Of men: [what will happen to us?] for, they feared the people.” Or we may supply, “it will not be wise.”
Luke 2:21 —“And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child [then they circumcised him, and] his name was called JESUS.”
John 3:2 —“Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God:
for no man can do these miracles which thou doest, except God be with him:
[therefore am I come to thee, that thou mayest teach me the way of salvation].”
John 6:62 —“What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?”
Here the Apodosis is entirely wanting. The Greek reads simply “If then ye should see the Son of man ascending up where he was before?” The thought is the same as in John 3:12: “If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?” So that the apodosis may be supplied thus, “will ye believe then?” or, “ye will not be offended then,” i.e., ye will marvel then not at My doctrine but at your own unbelief of it. Compare 8:28 and 3:13.
(But see further under the figure of Aposiopesis).
Rom. 9:22-24 —Here we have a remarkable anantapodoton. The conclusion of the argument is omitted. It begins with “if ” (verse 22), and the apodosis must be supplied at the end of verse 24 from verse 20, i.e., if God chooses to do this or that “who art thou that repliest against God?” What have you to say?
Or, indeed, we may treat it as the Ellipsis of a prior member, in which case verse 22 would commence “[what reply hast thou to make], if God, willing to show his wrath,” etc.
Jas. 2:13 —“For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath showed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment [to him that hath showed mercy]”.
2 Pet. 2:4 —The apodosis is wanting here, but it is difficult to supply it without breaking the argument; which is, “If God spared not the angels that sinned,” neither will he spare the false prophets and teachers, mentioned in verse 1. It is deferred till verse 12, where we have it:—they “shall utterly perish in their own corruption.”
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……………3. When the Comparison is wanting. This is a kind of anantapodoton.
Rom. 7:3 —In verses 2 and 3 the hypothesis is given in which the husband dies, while in verse 4 the fact to be illustrated is the case in which the wife dies. Death ending the power of the marriage law in each case.
At the end of verse 3, therefore, the other hypothesis must be supplied
(mentally if not actually): —
“If her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man [and I need not say that if she be dead, she is, of course, free from that law], Wherefore, my brethren, ye also have died to the law through the body of Christ; that ye should be joined to another, even to him who is raised from the dead,” i.e., God’s people have died in Christ; and, on the other side of death, have risen with Christ, and are united to Him. Thus being dead with Christ, the Law has no longer any dominion over them, and they are free to be united to another, “being dead to that wherein we were held”
(verse 6, margin, and, R.V.).
Compare the following Scriptures on this important doctrine:—
Rom. 8:2; 6:1-11; Gal. 2:19; 5:18; 6:14; Col. 2:14; 3:3; 1 Pet. 2:24.
This figure comes under the head of Rhetoric, and is then called Enthymema (q.v.).
1 Tim. 1:3,4 —“As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine,
Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions,
rather than godly edifying which is in faith
[so I repeat my charge, that thou remain at Ephesus, etc.]”.
2 Tim. 2:20 —“In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver,
but also of wood and of earth, and, some to honour; and some to dishonour:
[so in the great house of the church there are not only the elect saints, which are the vessels of honour, but there are the impious and reprobate, who are the vessels of dishonour].”: Therefore the admonition follows, in verse 21, to purge ourselves from these; i.e., not from the vessels of gold and silver, or wood and earth, but from persons. Still less does it say we are to purge the persons or the assembly!
Each one is to “purge himself,” not the others.
We now come to the second great division— Relative Ellipsis.
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From “Figures Of Speech Used In The Bible” by Dr. E. W. Bullinger,
(Public Domain) pages 53-55. Adapted for website compatibility.
See original at link. Stream Download.
..See also http://www.bibleplaces.com/warrenshaft.htm
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