Introduction
As we look at the verse in Ephesians 2.8, we notice that there are referents with an article and referents without an article in the Greek. The presence or absence of the article at first glance seems to be merely a stylistic matter of choice without any intention on the part of the writer, but this is not the case I intend to show below.
Generally, the article in the Greek koiné is interpreted as a way to mark definition of a referent. For example, in Portuguese language, we can say:
“Você viu o Pedro?”
In this case, the article defines the referent Pedro (Peter). I’m not talking about just any Pedro, but a specific Pedro. It turns out that in Brazilian Portuguese language it is possible to use a referent without an article and still be defined. Let’s see.
“Você viu o Pedro?”[1]
In the first case, in some regions of Brazil, as in the city of Fortaleza, in Ceará, it is common to use the article. In the second case, in the region of Cariri, in the state of Ceará, in Brazil, the absence of the article is common. Thus, it can be observed that the presence or absence of the article does not necessarily mark an indefinite referent.
In the case of Greek, the understanding of the use of the article as a definition of a referent is influenced by English grammar, which has a definite article (the) and an indefinite article (“a” or “an”). In both English and Brazilian Portuguese, the introduction of a new referent in the text is done by an indefinite article. In Greek, the strategy is the use of the indefinite pronoun τις (“one”, “some”): Ανὴρ δέ τις Ἁνανίας ὀνόματι (Acts 5:1, “There was a man named Ananias”). Furthermore, Greek has no indefinite article, for that reason it is inconsistent to speak of a definite article to refer to ὁ, ἡ, τό.
The Function of the Article
Getting to the point, the use of the article is not to define a referent, but to identify it. Here it is:
“Identification has to do with the speaker’s assessment of whether the discourse representation of a specific referent is already stored in the mind of its hearer or not” (Lambrecht, 1996, p.76).
Use of the article appeals to the reader’s knowledge: the reader can identify the referent intended by the writer (Runge, 2019; Peters, 2019). Considering primary readers, it is necessary to interpret the referent not from our worldview, but from the worldview of its readers.
Another characteristic of the use of the article associated with a referent is to present it as concrete as opposed to somewhat abstract (Peters, 2019). The opposition concrete and abstract is associated with prominence and background, respectively, in a text. Every text is marked by what is prominent (important) and what is less important. Prominence or salience concerns the writer/speaker’s attempt to draw the reader/listener’s attention to something quite important. One of the strategies to mark prominence is to use concrete referents giving liveliness to the text. On the other hand, abstract referents tend to be less emphatic compared to concrete ones. In a text, concrete referents are more emphatic than abstract referents.
Analysis of Ephesians 2:8
This is a text that causes difficulty in interpretation because the use of τοῦτο can be used to refer to πίστεως (faith) or to χάριτί (grace). What does not come from the readers? Faith in Jesus or salvation grace?
Τῇ γὰρ χάριτί ἐστε σεσῳσμένοι διὰ [Ø]πίστεως[2]· καὶ τοῦτο οὐκ ἐξ ὑμῶν, θεοῦ τὸ δῶρον·
The prepositional phrase διὰ πίστεως is a metonymy referring to trusting Jesus, so it is not the human being who is saved. It is Jesus who saves him. The use of πίστεως without an article shows that it is an abstract term, not a concrete one. If πίστεως had an article, it would be a concrete term (i.e., an immediate experience of the reader), so one could conclude that the individual’s faith saves him, but THIS IS NOT THE CASE. Because it is without an article, πίστεως is an abstract term, which functions metonymically to refer to trust in Jesus and not to the individual’s action in saving himself. Paul contrasts χάριτί and πίστεως, concrete and abstract, respectively.
The referents “grace” (τῇ χάριτί) and “gift” (τὸ δῶρον) are marked by article, while the referent “faith (πίστεως) has no article. All three words are abstract, but by using the article, the words become concrete. That is: it is something from the direct and immediate experience of the readers. Moreover, the use of article points out what Paul’s emphasis is: salvation by God’s grace. The central point of the verse is not faith; it is salvation by God’s grace. Since τῇ χάριτί and τὸ δῶρον are with article, they are specified referents characterized as concrete, and it can be inferred that the referent is Jesus’ concrete death on the cross that saves the individual. Since articles are used for χάριτί and δῶρον, the grace and gift of God, that is, salvation, cannot be seen as something abstract, but concrete: the death of Christ on the cross.
Since the referent χάριτί comes with an article (τῇ), being in the reader’s working memory, the reader is expected to conclude that the pronoun τοῦτο refers to τῇ χάριτί, thus keeping the main referent in focus. The use of the article in τὸ δῶρον also functions anaphorically[3] ; that is: it points to the previous referent, which the writer hopes will be active in the reader’s mind. Since the highlighted term is χάριτί because of the article τῇ and not πίστεως, one would expect τοῦτο (this) to point to “the grace”.
Another clue to interpreting τοῦτο as anaphoric reference to τῇ χάριτί is the use of the conjunction καὶ. This conjunction signals to the reader a continuity between what has been written and what will be written. Since the focus of the first sentence is the referent τῇ χάριτί with διὰ πίστεως as the background, the use of the conjunction allows one to infer that, based on the continuity between the two sentences, the pronoun τοῦτο (this) refers to τῇ χάριτί. In addition, the use of the passive voice has two functions. The textual function is to mark the central theme of the sentence – saving grace – and to erase the responsibility of the individual. In this way, Paul grammatically marks that it is not in the power of the individual to be saved. Which leads us to conclude that faith is an act of grace from God granted to the individual.
Conclusion
The traditional view of the Greek article tends to interpret it as the definition of a referent. My goal here was not to refute this view, but to present another proposal by applying it to the text of Ephesians 2.8. The article views as identification and specification of a referent making it abstract contributed to the understanding of the text by helping in the perception of the contrast between χάριτί (“grace”) and πίστεως (“faith”), with article and without article, respectively, concrete and abstract referent.
The use of the article in τῇ χάριτί, considering the use of the conjunction καὶ, the use of the passive voice, and the articulatory use of the referent τὸ δῶρον, contributed to infer that τοῦτο is used anaphorically to resume the most prominent referent in the reader’s working memory referring to τῇ χάριτί.
References
LAMBRECHT, K. Information structure and sentence form: Topic, focus, and the mental representations of discourse referents. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994
PETERS, R. A Discourse-Functional Approach to the Greek Article. In: The Greek Article in Post-Classical Greek. Edited by Daniel King. Dallas: SIL, 2019.
RUNGE, S. Toward a Unified Understanding of the Greek Article from a Diachronic, Cognitive Perspective. In: The Greek Article in Post-Classical Greek. Edited by Daniel King. Dallas: SIL, 2019.
[1] Translation: “Have you seen Peter?”
[2] O símbolo [Ø] serve para identificar a ausência de um elemento, no caso, a falta do artigo.
[3] Anaphora means a grammatical element that resumes a referent already mentioned in the text. Since there are two referents mentioned in the text, “grace” and “faith,” doubt occurs whether “this” (τοῦτο) refers to the first referent or the second. Because of the article in Τῇ γὰρ χάριτί and not πίστεως, Paul makes it clear by the use of the article that the former is the primary referent.