| 32. Linguistic Exegesis The opening assertion combines egō eimi {Ἐγώ εἰμι | egṓ eimí} ‘I am’ as a present-tense self-identification formula, echoing the divine speech of Exodus. The predicate nominative structure ho theos Abraam {ὁ θεὸς Ἀβραὰμ | ho theós Abraám}, repeated with Isaak {Ἰσαὰκ | Isaák} and Iakōb {Ἰακώβ | Iakṓb}, uses indeclinable proper names in a genitival relationship to mark God as the God “of” each patriarch individually. The repetition of ho theos {ὁ θεὸς | ho theós} with each name, rather than a single compressed phrase, heightens the emphasis on God’s ongoing covenant bond with each forefather.
The second clause, ouk estin ho theos nekrōn alla zōntōn {οὐκ ἔστιν ὁ θεὸς νεκρῶν ἀλλὰ ζώντων | ouk éstin ho theós nekrôn allà zṓntōn}, follows a clear “not … but …” contrastive pattern, where ouk negates the verb estin and alla introduces the corrective affirmation. Here ho theos functions again as a predicate nominative, with the implicit subject understood from the preceding divine declaration. The genitive plurals nekrōn {νεκρῶν | nekrôn} ‘of dead’ and zōntōn {ζώντων | zṓntōn} ‘of living’ describe the groups with whom God is characteristically associated; the genitive expresses a relational domain, “God in relation to the dead” versus “God in relation to the living.”
In translation, the triple “the God of …” is preserved to mirror the Greek parallelism and to foreground the continuing relationship across generations. The implicit subject in the second clause is rendered explicitly as “He” to avoid ambiguity in English, while maintaining the contrastive rhythm “not the God of the dead, but of the living,” which supports Jesus’ argument about ongoing life beyond physical death. |