Buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription

Associate Professor of New Testament

The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Louisville, KY

Introduction

Recent years have buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription seen some disagreement between hierarchalists and non-hierarchalists over the nature of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription Son’s submission to the Father in Phil 2:6–7.  In 2:6 in particular, the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription discussion has focused in part on the meaning of Christ’s “equality with God”: “Although he existed in the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription form of God, he did not regard equality with God as a buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription thing to be grasped for” (Phil 2:6, author’s translation). On the one hand, Millard Erickson writes that the Son’s “equality with God” is a reference to the Son’s “equal authority” with the Father—“something he already possessed” in his preincarnate state. On the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription other hand, Wayne Grudem writes that “equality with God” refers to the Son’s “equality in glory and honor in heaven, which Christ gave up in coming to earth.”  For Erickson, the Son temporarily laid aside his “equal authority” with the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription Father in the incarnation in order to submit to the Father during his earthly life only. The Son’s equal authority was restored to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription him after the resurrection. Thus in Erickson’s view, there would be buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription no eternal subordination in role of the Son to the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription Father. For Grudem, the text still allows for the Son to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription be submitted to his Father from all eternity.

The purpose of this buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription essay is to discuss another possible way of understanding Christ’s “equality with God” in Phil 2:6. To do so, I want to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription highlight a grammatical item that is often overlooked by interpreters and buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription commentators. The aim of this short study is not to rehearse the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription old disputes and give a comprehensive history of interpretation. This task has buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription already been ably done elsewhere. My purpose here is to highlight the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription grammatical item in this verse and to briefly note its potential theological impact on our understanding of intratrinitarian relations. 

I render the key phrase, o[j evn morfh/ qeou/ u`pa,rcwn ouvc a`rpagmo.n h`gh,sato to. ei=nai i=sa qew/|, as follows, “who, although he existed in the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription form of God, did not regard equality with God as something that buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription he should grasp for.” In my translation, I have buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription already given an indication as to where I stand with respect to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription some of the more well-known interpretive disputes. But the grammatical issue that buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription I wish to address concerns the double-accusative at the end of this buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription verse—the first accusative being a`rpagmo.n, and the second the infinitive phrase to. ei=nai i=sa qew/|. The matter at hand centers on the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription significance of the article in the second accusative. The grammatical question that buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription I will ask and answer in this essay is as follows. What is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the significance of the article in the articular infinitive to. ei=nai i=sa qew/|?

N. T. Wright and the Conventional View

N. T. Wright proposed an buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription answer to this question in a little article that he wrote for buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the Journal of Theological Studies in 1986. He follows the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription conventional wisdom on this point and argues that the article has buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the same significance with verbal nouns (i.e., infinitives) as it buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription has with any other noun. What significance does the article have buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription with other nouns? We do well to remember that the Greek article is a determiner and buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription at times points back, as it were, to an antecedent noun in the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription preceding context. This phenomenon of the article referring back to another noun in the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription preceding context is called anaphora. A routine example of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription anaphoric use of the article is found in John 4:40 where buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription we read that Jesus “remained” with the Samaritans for “two days.” A couple of verses later, we read that “after the two days, [Jesus] went out from there into Galilee” (John 4:43). What “two days” in verse 43? The two days mentioned two verses earlier in verse 40. A theologically significant example is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription found in James chapter two. In James 2:14 we read, “What is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the benefit, my brothers, if a man says that he has buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription faith but he has no works? Can the faith save him?” Notice the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription article in the second half of the verse. It is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription not just any “faith.” It is “the faith” (h` pi,stij) just mentioned in the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription first part of the verse. The faith that will not save is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription that “faith” just mentioned that buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription does not have any works. In this case, the definite article is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the functional equivalent of a demonstrative pronoun. That is why the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription NASB, for example, renders this verse, “Can that faith save him?”

N. T. Wright argues that buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription just as the article often carries this anaphoric significance with other Greek nouns, so it buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription could possibly have an anaphoric significance when used in connection with the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription Greek infinitive. In Phil 2:6, Wright contends that “the being equal with God” (to. ei=nai i=sa qew/|) refers back to “the form of God” (morfh/ qeou/) mentioned in the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription first part of the verse. The exegetical result is that buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription “equality with God” is equal to or synonymous with the “form of God.” These two phrases (to. ei=nai i=sa qew/| and morfh/ qeou/) are buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription but two ways of referring to one reality. It is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription at this point that the Christological significance of the grammatical observation begins to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription emerge. If these two phrases are semantically connected on the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription basis of anaphoric reading of the articular infinitive, then we have buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription to say that Christ had “equality with God” in his preexistent unity with God. Since the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription two phrases refer to the same thing, then he must have buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription possessed both because they are one.

An Alternative View

I propose an interpretation that allows for “equality with God” to be a reality that is distinct from Christ’s existing in the “form of God.” What is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription it about the syntax of this verse that allows me to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription argue for such an interpretation? Contrary to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription N. T. Wright, I contend that the article in the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription phrase to. ei=nai i=sa qew/| does not refer back to the morfh/ qeou/. In other words, there is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription no anaphoric link between these two phrases. If I am buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription correct in arguing that there is no anaphoric link, then buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription this observation allows us to consider the possibility that the “form of God” (morfh/ qeou/) and the “equality with God” (to. ei=nai i=sa qew/|??) are buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription not synonyms and that we should not regard them as semantically overlapped. “Equality with God” and “form of God” might not be buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription two ways of referring to the same thing. Therefore, if one wants to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription argue that these two phrases are semantic equivalents, one will have buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription to do so on other grounds because there is little if any grammatical basis for buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the supposed anaphoric link. But before we can buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription come to such a conclusion, we have to consider the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription grammatical arguments that militate against the alleged anaphoric link. My argument will proceed in four parts: (1) a buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription contrast of my thesis with the conventional view contained in the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription grammar book by Blass-Debrunner-Funk, (2) an buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription argument for the grammatical necessity of the article in Phil 2:6, (3) a buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription brief statement of a controlling presupposition concerning the semantics of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription Greek article, and (4) an buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription exposition of how my thesis is born out in the rest of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription New Testament and other related literature.

Wright, BDF, and the Conventional View

Although I have singled out the remarks in N. T. Wright’s 1986 article, I should point out that buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription he is merely articulating the conventional wisdom concerning the significance of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription article in the articular infinitive. He is not the only commentator making this buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription claim. As noted above, the conventional wisdom holds that the article has buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the same significance with verbal nouns (i.e., infinitives) that it has with other nouns. If one reads Blass-Debrunner-Funk’s section on the articular infinitive (the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription NT grammar book that many still consider to be the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription state of the art reference grammar), one finds the conventional view stated very clearly, “In general the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription anaphoric significance of the article, i.e. its reference to something previously mentioned or buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription otherwise well known, is more or less evident.” So Wright and buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription others seem to be following the settled grammatical conclusions of BDF. Thus, the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription question is whether Wright is correct in his reliance upon BDF’s judgment concerning the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription articular infinitive. I think this reliance is not correct for at least two reasons.

First, a buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription careful reading of BDF reveals that this grammar never intended to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription communicate that the article always bears an buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription anaphoric significance when used with the articular infinitive. In fact, BDF says that buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription when the articular infinitive is “[w]ithout this buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription anaphoric reference, an infinitive as subject or object is usually anarthrous.” BDF concedes that the articular infinitive is sometimes found “without” an buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription anaphoric reference. Furthermore, BDF goes on to divide its treatment between those examples which are buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription “anaphoric” and those which are “less clearly anaphoric.” One could reasonably argue that buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the only clearly anaphoric articular infinitives are those that have buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription a cognate term in the near context (e.g. qana,tou … to. avpoqanei/n in Phil 2:20–21). Such is not the case with to. ei=nai i=sa qew/|? and morfh/ qeou/. Thus, the prima facie argument for buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription an anaphoric link does not hold in Phil 2:6. The important thing to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription note is that even BDF allows that the articular infinitive simply does not always bear an anaphoric significance—not even in the nominative/accusative examples. In the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription area of lexical semantics, careful scholars avoid the error of illegitimate totality transfer—that is, reading a word’s entire lexical range into a buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription given use of that word in context. In the area of grammar, scholars would do well to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription avoid the same fallacy as it is applied to syntax—that is, in this buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription case, to avoid attributing the entire range of grammatical functions to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the article that is attached to the infinitive in Phil 2:6. Just because some uses of the articular infinitive may appear to be anaphoric (a claim I contest below), that does not mean all articular infinitives are anaphoric.

Second, Wright is not correct in following BDF’s judgment because the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription NT evidence shows that BDF has overstated the significance of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription article in connection with the infinitive. And here is where I will introduce the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription heart of my argument and contrast it with the conventional view of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription articular infinitive. My thesis concerning the meaning of the article with the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription infinitive contains both a positive and a negative element: Whenever the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription definite article is connected to the infinitive, it always does so in order to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription signal a structural relation and/or buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription to clarify case, not to indicate the semantic change normally associated with determiners (e.g., anaphora). Let us briefly consider both the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription negative and positive aspects of my argument. 

Negatively stated, the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription article with the infinitive does not have the semantic effect of making the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription infinitive definite (and thereby anaphoric). Any given use of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription article can best be described as falling on a spectrum of significance. At one end of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription spectrum is syntactical value and at the other end of the spectrum is semantic value. Many uses of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription article comprise a combination of both syntactical and semantic features. However, there are buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription many uses in which one of these elements predominates—either syntactical or semantic. 

The use of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription article with the infinitive consistently falls on the far left of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription spectrum, which is graphically illustrated above. The evidence below will show that buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the article does not determine the infinitive as definite (be it individual, generic, par excellence, anaphora, etc.), thereby effecting a buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription semantic modification to the infinitive. Therefore, it is completely off the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription mark to say that the article is used with the infinitive in exactly the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription same way that it is used with other nouns. With other nouns, the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription article’s significance is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription all over the spectrum. With the infinitive, it is only on the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription left side.

Positively stated, the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription article with the infinitive functions primarily as a syntactical marker. As such the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription article appears with the infinitive for one of two reasons: (1) to mark the case of the infinitive or (2) to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription mark some other syntactical function that can only be made explicit by the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription presence of the article. In other words, the definite article gets connected to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the infinitive in order to mark a structural relation. The article clarifies the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription syntactical relation of the infinitive phrase to its context and is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription used only as a function word.

The Grammatical Necessity of the Article in Philippians 2:6

What syntactical relationship needs clarifying in Phil 2:6? As Daniel Wallace observes, without the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription definite article we would not be able to distinguish the accusative object from buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the accusative complement following the verb “consider” (h`gh,sato). The article is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription required in order to mark the components of this double accusative phrase. Because our focus is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription on the double accusative, it will therefore be necessary to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription elaborate on the syntax of the object-complement construction. Whereas most transitive verbs take only one accusative direct object, there are buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription at least fifty-six verbs in the New Testament that buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription can take two accusatives. In this scenario, one accusative is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the direct object, and the other accusative is the complement. The complement predicates something about the direct object. For example, Paul writes, “I consider these things a loss” (tau/ta h]ghmai … zhmi,an tau/ta, Phil 3:7). “These things” (tau/ta) and “a loss” (zhmi,an) are both in the accusative case. “These things” is the direct object, and “a loss” describes “these things.”

Sometimes there is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the potential for confusion in distinguishing the accusative object from the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription accusative complement. For this reason, Wallace has set forth a set of rules that buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription help to distinguish the accusative object from the accusative complement. The object will either be buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription a pronoun or a proper name, or it will have the definite article. In Phil 2:6, the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription only way we can distinguish the accusative object from the accusative complement is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription by the definite article at the beginning of the infinitive. If the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription article were absent, the syntactical relation of the infinitive phrase to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the rest of the sentence would be unclear. So the article does not show up here in order to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription link “equality with God” to the “form of God.” The definite article appears here to distinguish the object (to. ei=nai i=sa qew/|) from the complement (a`rpagmo.n). 

Presupposition concerning Syntax and Semantics

I have buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription just demonstrated that the article is syntactically required in Phil 2:6 in order for buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the double-accusative construction to be intelligible. This observation is important because of a buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription presupposition that many linguists make when analyzing the Greek article. This assumption can buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription be summarized as follows: When it can be demonstrated that buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the Greek article is syntactically required, one should not look for buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription any further semantic significance in the article. In these situations, the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription article appears as a function word with little to no buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription semantic weight as a determiner. In this way I am buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription following the methodological assumption of Haiim B. Rosén in his work on the Greek article in Heraclitus:

The recognition of grammatical features is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription also essential for the exegete or semanticist, that is, for buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription one whose objective is to explain the meaning of an buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription expression or text, since ... only a total elimination of all grammatical features permits us to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription arrive at true semantic statements ... the first step of linguistic analysis aimed at defining the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription function of a given element of expression is to exclude all its uses in environments where buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription it appears to be compulsory or grammatically induced.

According to Rosén, when buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the article appears in contexts where it is grammatically obligatory, one cannot press the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription usual semantic value that the article has as a determiner. This procedure is consistent with Robert Funk’s observation concerning the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription significance of the article in Hellenistic Greek, “Where the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription article functions more or less exclusively as a grammatical device, i.e., where buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription it is lexically entirely empty.” He elaborates that in such situations, “The article in Greek is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription often a purely grammatical device and should be assigned only grammatical “meaning.”’ The rest of this buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription essay builds upon the same presupposition. Therefore, in the following analysis of articular infinitives in the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription New Testament, whenever it can be demonstrated that the article is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription required as a function marker or case-identifier, we cannot conclude that buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the article definitizes the infinitive (thereby making it anaphoric).

An Analysis of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription Articular Infinitive in the New Testament in Light of Related Literature 

My argument against Wright and buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription Blass-Debrunner-Funk is borne out by the fact that no articular infinitive in the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription NT is clearly anaphoric and that the overwhelming majority of them are buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription clearly not anaphoric. There are at least 320 occurrences of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription articular infinitive in the NT. We can divide the occurrences of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription articular infinitives of the New Testament between those that follow prepositions and buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription those that do not. In order to demonstrate the value of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription Greek article in such contexts, we will first explore the uses of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription articular infinitive as object of prepositions, and then we will consider the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription articular infinitives that are not governed by prepositions.

Articular Infinitives Following Prepositions

Well over half of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription 323 articular infinitives in the New Testament (201 to be exact) are buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the object of a preposition. Two observations lead us to the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription conclusion that the article is grammatically obligatory when an infinitive serves as the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription object of the preposition. The first observation consists of a simple description of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription data as it stands in the New Testament. As has already been buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription pointed out, every infinitive that serves as a prepositional object in the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription New Testament is articular. There is no exception to this pattern in the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription New Testament literature, and this pattern is consistent with other koine writings of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription period. As a second observation, we can see that the article is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription necessary in order to mark the infinitive as the object of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription preposition. Because of the absence of spaces between words in Greek, one would not be buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription able to distinguish infinitives as objects from those that are being used in composition. Thus, great ambiguity would result if only anarthrous infinitives were used following prepositions. Theoretically, there would be buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription at least two syntactical possibilities for an anarthrous infinitive following a buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription preposition. The first possibility is that the infinitive might be functioning as the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription object of the preposition. The second possibility is that the preposition may be buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription combining with the verb to form a compound. Because of this buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription potential ambiguity, the article is needed in order to distinguish the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription first situation from the second situation. 

We can buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription illustrate the function of the Greek article in these kinds of prepositional phrases by thinking about how English distinguishes prepositional objects from buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription compound words. In English this distinction has both morphological and buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription phonetic aspects. Morphologically, English readers distinguish “infields of gold” from “in fields of gold” by the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription use of spaces between words. In the first phrase, we know “infields” to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription be a compound word simply by observing that there is no buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription space between the prepositional prefix “in” and the noun “fields.” The space separating “in” from “fields” in the second phrase shows us that “fields” is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription intended to be the object of the preposition. English speakers also make a buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription phonetic distinction between “infields” and “in fields” through the use of accent. “Infields” is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription articulated with an accent on the first syllable, while “in fields” would normally have buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription an accent on the second. The point is that English users utilize both morphological and buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription phonetic conventions in order to disambiguate what would otherwise be very unclear.

Such morphological and buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription phonetic distinctions would have been important to the authors of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription New Testament since their original audience would have included both readers and buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription hearers. The original reader of a given use of the articular infinitive in the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription New Testament would have needed a morphological way to distinguish compound infinitives from buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription infinitives as object of the preposition. Just as the space marks the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription noun as the prepositional object in English, so the article marks the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription infinitive as the prepositional object in Greek. The original hearers of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription spoken New Testament materials also would have needed such signals. The spoken article would have buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription enabled the original hearers to make this syntactic distinction. The point is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription that the article is grammatically obligatory when an articular infinitive is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription governed by a preposition. None of them indicate an anaphoric link to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription some other element in the immediate context, and I have not found anyone who buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription would dispute that claim.

Articular Infinitives Not Following Prepositions

Of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription other 122 articular infinitives not governed by a preposition, the vast majority are buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription clearly not anaphoric. Of the 81 genitive and one dative examples, the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription article clearly appears to encode a meaning associated with the article’s case. Of the 23 nominative and 18 accusative infinitives (which are identical in form), the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription article appears to clarify a syntactical relation. All of these infinitives have buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the article in order to clarify a grammatical relationship or to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription encode a meaning associated with the article’s case. If there are buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription any that denote anaphora, it would only be among the nominative/accusative examples, and even then there is only a handful. 

The one dative example in 2 Cor 2:13 deserves comment because there is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription general agreement that the article appears to encode a meaning associated with the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription dative case. In this lone example from the New Testament, the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription dative case form is employed in order to signify instrumentality (cf. LXX 2 Ch 28:22; Ecc 1:16; 4 Mac 17:20-21). The 81 genitive examples of this buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription construction also encode a meaning associated with the case form. As K. L. McKay has buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription aptly pointed out, 

The genitive of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription articular infinitive is found with expressions implying separation (ablatival genitive) and in dependence on nouns (descriptive genitive)…. 

Occasionally the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription genitive of an articular infinitive is found in constructions in which an buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription anarthrous infinitive is normal, and where there seems to be no buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription need for the genitive … In all these the genitive is probably partitive … indicating that buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the preceding activity is in some way seen as part of that buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription expressed by the infinitive. 

McKay’s point is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription that even in those texts that appear to be expressing purpose, the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription sense is probably partitive. Yet in texts such as 1 Cor 10:13, the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription genitive articular infinitive is often rendered as purpose, poih,sei su.n tw/| peirasmw|/ kai. th.n e;kbasin tou/ du,nasqai u`penegkei/n, “He will provide with the temptation a way of escape so that you might be able (a way of escape consisting in the ability) to bear up.” But in this text the genitive actually defines th.n e;kbasin, and the idea of purpose (or consequence) actually arises from buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the logic rather than the grammar of the sentence. For our purposes, the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription important thing to note in all the genitive and dative examples is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription that the article appears in order to encode a meaning associated with the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription case, not to determine the infinitive as definite.

The 40 nominative and buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription accusative examples of the articular infinitive that do not follow prepositions are buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the most analogous in form and semantics to the example in Phil 2:6. For this buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription reason, we will have to give a fuller accounting of these texts. Like the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription genitive and dative examples, the nominative and accusative articular infinitives are buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription grammatically induced, though not for precisely the same reason. In the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription genitive and dative examples, the article encodes a syntactical relation and buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription a meaning that is directly related to the case of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription article. In the nominative and accusative examples, the article only marks a buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription syntactical relation. The reason for this slight difference can be buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription attributed to the difference between the cases. Whereas the genitive and buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription dative in themselves signify an identifiable semantic content, the nominative and buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the accusative do not. The nominative and accusative cases are buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription by definition non-defining. So we will not find the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription nominative and accusative infinitives to be freighted with additional semantic content such as instrumentality (as with the dative), description or separation (as with the genitive). What we do find is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription that the nominative and accusative neuter articles function to disambiguate what buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription would otherwise be ambiguous syntactical arrangements. That is, when the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription nominative or accusative article appears in conjunction with the infinitive, it buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription expresses a grammatical-structural relation that may not otherwise be apparent.

The nominative article functions to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription mark the infinitive as the subject of the sentence in which it buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription stands. There are at least 304 instances in the New Testament in which infinitives function as the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription syntactical subjects of the sentences in which they stand. In the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription vast majority of these examples (280 to be exact), the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription infinitive is anarthrous. Only 24 examples of the infinitive as subject are buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription articular. These statistics show that the article is not obligatory in order for buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription an infinitive to be understood as the syntactical subject. Most of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription time, one can deduce that the anarthrous infinitive is the subject without the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription article marking it as nominative. But there are several situations in which the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription article becomes important as a structural marker.

First, the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription article can be necessary in order to distinguish the subject from buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the predicate nominative. This is certainly the case with the two articular infinitives in Phil 1:21,   vEmoi. ga.r to. zh/n Cristo.j kai. to. avpoqanei/n ke,rdoj. If the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription neuter articles were absent in this text, it would not be buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription at all clear how the infinitives function in this context. If we were to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription utilize the normal rules for distinguishing subject from predicate nominative, then buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription Cristo.j would certainly be buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription considered the subject in the absence of the neuter article. It is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription true that zwh/j and qana,tou (Phil 1:20) immediately present themselves as possible antecedents of an buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription anaphoric article. But an anaphoric article would be semantically superfluous. The author does not need an buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription anaphoric article to clarify his continued exposition of his “living” and “dying.” The same author feels no buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription compulsion to use the anaphoric article with the infinitive in similar contexts (cf. Paul’s judging in 1 Cor 5:3, 12). For this buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription reason, the grammatical explanation of the article seems most satisfactory.

Second, the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription article often keeps the subject-infinitive from being confused with an infinitive that buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription modifies a predicate adjective. In Matt 20:23 (par. Mark 10:40), for instance, we read, to. de. kaqi,sai evk dexiw/n mou kai. evx euvwnu,mwn ouvk e;stin evmo.n dou/nai. In this buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription case, if the article were absent, it would be difficult to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription decipher which infinitive is the subject and which is epexegetical to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription evmo.n. There are buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription contexts in which the anarthrous infinitive is epexegetical to a predicate adjective (Matt 9:5; 9:5; Mark 2:9; 2:9; Luke 5:23; 5:23). The neuter article removes the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription potential syntactic ambiguity by showing kaqi,sai to be the subject and dou/nai to be modifying the adjective evmo.n. This explanation accounts for the article’s appears in at least 10 other texts (Mark 12:33; 12:33; Rom 14:21; 14:21; 1 Cor 7:26; 11:6; 11:6; 2 Cor 9:1; Phil 1:24; Heb 10:31).

Third, the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription article functions to clarify the infinitive as subject so that buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription it will not be mistaken as standing in an adverbial relation to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the main verb. The pair of infinitives in Rom 7:18 have buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription articles that perform this duty, to. ga.r qe,lein para,keitai, moi, to. de. katerga,zesqai to. kalo.n ou;. In this buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription text, the article is necessary to mark the infinitive as subject because para&keimai can be followed by the anarthrous infinitive with an ecbatic sense (cf. Jdt. 3:2, 3; perhaps 2 Mac 12:16; 3 Mac 7:3). The article removes the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription ambiguity. In Phil 1:29, we find a similar example of this buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription usage, u`mi/n evcari,sqh to. u`pe.r Cristou/, ouv mo,non to. eivj auvto.n pisteu,ein avlla. kai. to. u`pe.r auvtou/ pa,scein. In this buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription instance, the neuter article is necessary to set the infinitive in apposition to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the grammatical subject, to. u`pe.r Cristou. If Paul had buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription not used the article in this text to clarify the infinitive as the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription subject, then it would have been syntactically possible to translate the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription infinitives adverbially, “it is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription present in order to desire for me, but not in order to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription do the good.” Such an buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription understanding is perhaps unlikely, but the presence of the definite articles removes any potential confusion about how these infinitives are buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription functioning in this sentence. In 2 Cor 8:11, the article is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription necessary to mark evpitele,sai as subject of a buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription new clause so that it would not be misinterpreted as in an buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription attributive relation to the genitive article governing the previous infinitive, nuni. de. kai. to. poih/sai evpitele,sate, o[pwj kaqa,per h` proqumi,a tou/ qe,lein ou[twj kai. to. evpitele,sai evk tou/ e;cein. In all of these texts, the definite articles provide the structural clues we need to identify the infinitive as subject.

There are buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription at least 16 instances of the accusative articular infinitive in the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription New Testament. With the exception of two texts in which the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription accusative article marks an appositional relation (Rom 14:13; 2 Cor 2:1), the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription accusative case appears with the infinitive in order to encode the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription infinitive as the direct object of a transitive verb. In at least five of these texts, the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription accusative articular infinitive helps to clarify the meaning of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription main verb. In Acts 25:11, we read, ouv paraitou/mai to. apoqanei/n. The article with apoqanei/n removes the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription possibility that the infinitive is indirect discourse. Without the article, paraitou/mai might be misinterpreted as “request” (cf. Luke 23:23; John 4:9; Acts 3:14; 7:46; 13:28; Eph 3:13; Heb 12:19). An accusative object with no buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription indirect discourse leads to interpreting paraitou/mai as “refuse” or “reject” (1 Tim 4:7; 5:11; 2 Tim 2:23; Titus 3:10; Heb 12:25). Consider also 2 Cor 10:2, de,omai de. to. mh. parw.n qarrh/sai th/| pepoiqh,sei h[| logi,zomai tolmh/sai evpi, tinaj tou.j logizome,noj h`ma/j w`j kata. sa,rka peripatou/ntaj. James L. Boyer includes de,omai in his list of verbs that buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription take an infinitive in indirect discourse. When de,omai is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription followed by an anarthrous infinitive, the infinitive phrase indicates indirect discourse (e.g. Luke 8:38; 9:38; Acts 26:3). Bauer’s lexicon shows that with the accusative, de,omai refers to the accusative of the thing as distinguished from “indirect discourse” and “direct discourse.”

In Rom 13:8, the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription accusative article appears to clarify the meaning of the verb ovfei,lete in Mhdeni. mhde.n ovfei,lete, eiv mh. to. avllh,louj avgapa/|n. The verb ovfei,lw requires either a complementary infinitive or an accusative object. When it is followed by a complementary infinitive in Paul, the sense of ovfei,lw is always “ought, should, must” (Rom 15:1, 27; 1 Cor 5:10; 7:36; 9:10; 11:7, 10; 12:11, 14; Eph 5:28; 2 Thess 1:3; 2:13). When followed by an accusative object, the sense of ovfei,lw is always “owe” (Rom 13:8; Phm 18). Thus, the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription article marks the infinitive as accusative object and shows that the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription infinitive is not complementary. The ovfei,lw … avgapa/|n pair also occurs in Eph 5:28 where avgapa/|n is anarthrous and thus complementary. A similar situation is found in 2 Cor 8:10, oi[tinej ouv mo,non to. poih/sai avlla. kai. to. qe,lein proenh,rxasqe avpo. pe,rusi. The accusative article is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription necessary to mark the infinitive as object because evna,rcw and buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription related verbs can be used with the anarthrous infinitive as complementary (cf. Deut 2:24, 25, 31). The main point in all these texts is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription that the article appears in order to clarify the infinitive’s case. Thus, the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription article emerges as a function word in such texts.

Sometimes the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription accusative case is made explicit by the article so that buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the main verb will be construed as transitive with respect to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the infinitive object. Such is the case in Phil 4:10, avneqa,lete to. u`pe.r evmou/ fronei/n. Though avnaqa,llw is a hapax legomena in the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription New Testament, we know from its use in the LXX that buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription an accusative object is required in order for this verb to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription be considered transitive (Sir 1:18; 11:22; 50:10; Ezek 17:24). Without the article, the subject of avnaqa,llw can buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription be construed as more or less the receptor of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription verbal action (cf. Ps 27:7; Wis 4:4; Sir 46:12; 49:10; Ho 8:9), a buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription sense clearly not intended in this text. Likewise, in Phil 2:13 the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription article clarifies the sense of evnerge,w: qeo.j ga,r evstin o` evnergw/n evn u`mi/n kai. to. qelein kai. to. evnergei/n u`pe.r th/j euvdoki,aj. With accusative of thing, evnerge,w means “produce, effect.” Without the accusative, evnerge,w is intransitive and refers to a more generic “working.” In 1 Cor 14:39, the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription two accusative articles mark the two infinitives as objects of their respective imperative verbs  [Wste, avdelfoi, [mou], zhlou/te to. profhteu,ein kai. to. lalei/n mh. kwlu,ete glw,ssaij. Without the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription article, the two infinitives might be taken in a final sense with w[ste, a very common use of the infinitive in the New Testament.  

In all of these examples of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription accusative articular infinitive, we can see that the neuter accusative article regularly occurs for buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription a syntactical reason. It marks the infinitive as object. In a buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription similar way, that is what is happening in Phil 2:6. But in this buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription text, the article marks the direct object and thereby distinguishes it buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription from its accusative complement. Imagine for a moment the potential syntactical confusion that buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription would result if we were to remove the definite article from buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the infinitive in Phil 2:6. It would then be syntactically possible to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription take a`rpagmo.n as the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription direct object and to take the infinitive as an adverbial phrase, “He did not think about a`rpagmo.n so that he would not be equal with God.” Again, this understanding of Paul’s meaning might be buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription unlikely, but it would be syntactically possible. The presence of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription article clears away any possible ambiguity. These texts illustrate what buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription I think is the case across the board with the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription articular infinitive in the New Testament. The article only appears with the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription infinitive as a function word or syntactical marker. Because these uses of the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription article are grammatically induced, it is not advisable to posit the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription semantic notion of anaphora to the articular infinitive.

Theological Implications

The primary theological implication of this buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription exegesis is that we have removed any grammatical basis for a buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription necessary semantic link between “form of God” and “equality with God.” In the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription absence of an explicit link between these two items and in the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription absence of evidence showing that they are linked on other grounds, we should not assume too quickly that buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription the two phrases are synonymous. There is no prima facie basis to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription regard them as synonymous, and it is therefore possible that they refer to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription two separate realities. As I mentioned at the beginning, I think Paul intends the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription following: “Although Jesus existed in the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription form of God, he did not consider equality with God as something he should go after also.” In other words, although Jesus actually possessed an buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription identical characteristic of his Father with respect to his deity (i.e., “he existed in the form of God”), he did not want to grasp after another role that was not his—namely, “equality with God.” So what is this “equality with God” if it is not something that he already possessed? 

The adversative “but” (avlla,) in verse 7 helps us to understand what “equality with God” means. Paul contrasts grasping for equality with Christ’s self-emptying (e`auto.n evke,nwsen). Christ’s self-emptying is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription not an ontological divesture of his deity. Rather, self-emptying is defined by two dependent clauses that buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription express the means by which Christ “emptied himself.” He did it “by taking the form of a servant” and “by taking on the likeness of men.” Both of these participial clauses address features attaching to Christ’s role as the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription incarnate God. In other words, they address characteristics that define Christ’s personhood within the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription Godhead. They are functional characteristics, not ontological ones. Thus, they express Christ’s role as the God-incarnate servant—a role peculiar to the second person of the Trinity.

 So the contrast between “grasping for equality” and “emptying himself” suggests that both are functional categories. “Grasping for equality” would have been the opposite of “self-emptying.” “Grasping for equality” would have buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription precluded Jesus from his taking the form of a servant and buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription from his becoming in the likeness of men. In his preexistent state, Jesus decided not to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription pursue “equality,” but to pursue incarnation. Paul argues here that in his pre-incarnate state, Christ’s existed as qeo,j. Yet in this buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription pre-incarnate existence, Christ Jesus did not seek to be like qeo,j in every respect. Paul pictures Christ Jesus (Cristw|/  vIhsou|/) as identified with God (qeo,j) in one respect, but distinguished from buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription Him in another respect. Christ, before all time, preexisted in the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription form of God, but he did not forsake his unique role in order to buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription be like God the Father in every way. The pre-incarnate Christ shared the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription Father’s deity, but he did not try to usurp the Father’s role. The Father would send the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription Son, and the Son would submit to being sent. In eternity past, the buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription Son submitted to this plan.

Conclusion

My argument can buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription be summed up as follows. Many commentators and grammarians see “form of God” and “equality with God” as semantic equivalents. This semantic equivalence is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription based in part on the erroneous assumption of a grammatical link between “form of God” and “equality with God.” This supposed grammatical link consists of an buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription anaphoric use of the articular infinitive, “the being equal with God” (to. ei=nai i=sa qew/||?). What I have buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription shown is that this link has little grammatical basis and buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription should be discarded. The theological result is that “form of God” and “equality with God” should not be buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription regarded as synonymous, but as phrases that each has their own distinct meaning. Therefore, in Paul’s Christology “form of God” is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription something that Jesus possessed by virtue of his deity, while “equality with God” is not. In fact, “equality with God” is buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription best understood as a role that Jesus refused to pursue so that buy cheap Valtrex with dr. prescription he could pursue his redemptive work in the incarnation.