Toward a Functional Description of New Testament Greek Conditionals with Special Reference to the Gospel of John

Abstract

Historically, the study of NT Greek conditional statements has predominantly set its focus on the Mood and Tense of the protasis. More recently, semantic approaches based on the speaker's viewpoint, or attitude, have also been adopted, to classify conditionals either as statements of assertion or projection. As such approaches are based on a limited number of linguistic features and functions, they offer only a partial understanding of conditionals. Most grammarians also largely ignore the wider contexts of the biblical texts and conditionals' rhetorical function. The purpose of this study is twofold: to critically examine current methods of describing and classifying conditionals to propose a new method based on theory of language and the analytical framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL); and to apply the proposed interpretive framework to analyze selected conditionals found in the Gospel of John, exploring how Jesus uses conditionals to persuade his audience and how conditionals serve the persuasive purpose of the Gospel. Instead of following the conventional lines of investigation, this thesis adopts Systemic Functional Linguistics' multi-stratal structure and multi-functional concept of language. Structurally, the interpretive framework expands from the units of words and clauses to those of clause complexes. All three major functions of language (ideational, interpersonal, and textual) are included as part of the total meaning. An analytical interpretive framework is then set up and applied to selected conditionals in John 3-11. Based on the evidence such as the choice of the Mood, thematic structure, logico-semantic relation, grammatical intricacy, clustered and consecutive conditionals, and conditionals as topic and summative statements, it is concluded that the conditionals Jesus uses present a strongly persuasive case for the author's purpose of writing. On one hand, the conditionals that Jesus uses rebut the Jews' charge of blasphemy and make a convincing case for his Christological claim. On the other hand, conditionals by Jesus also provide his audience and the reader of John with a different viewpoint (an alternate world) to understand the deeper meaning of faith and discipleship. Johannine conditionals perform the function of persuading the reader of John toward faith and spiritual growth in Jesus (20:31).