"So, Brothers": Pauline Use of the Vocative
Presented November 17, 2007 at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature
Use of the vocative by New Testament writers represents a pragmatic choice, yet there is little understanding of what motivates its use, or of its exegetical value. Most descriptions cast it as a structural marker of discourse units, corresponding to paragraph boundaries. However, many vocatives in the Greek New Testament text occur within paragraphs, calling the traditional account into question. This paper will review previous work on vocative use in the Greek New Testament, and briefly describe its discourse function based on its similarity to pragmatic markers in other languages. Representative examples from the Pauline corpus will be examined to demonstrate the exegetical value of careful attention to vocative use.
This is joint work with Dr. Steve Runge, Logos Scholar-in-residence.
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