The Granville Sharp Rule

Granville Sharp and the Granville Sharp Rule:

Granville Sharp and the Granville Sharp Rule With the Rule Applied to the Deity of Christ and Ephesians 4:11

Slide 2:

William Wilberforce 1759-1833 Many of us know about William Wilberforce, especially with the recent motion picture, “Amazing Grace.” We learned that slavery—the most malignant evil of the British Empire—ceased largely because of the faith and persistence of Wilberforce and his friends.

Slide 3:

Wilberforce’s dedicated team, called the Clapham Sect, worked tirelessly for years to put an end to slavery and other social ills. Note a man named Granville Sharp in the upper left corner.

Slide 4:

Granville Sharp 1735-1813 Granville Sharp has been called the “force behind Wilberforce” because he was the “prime mover in the abolition of slavery in England” (Wallace 591).

Granville Sharp:

Granville Sharp Sharp’s journey began one day when a half-dead, pistol-whipped slave appeared on his doorstep. After nursing him back to health, Granville Sharp represented the man in a two-year legal battle until he was freed. Throughout the rest of his life, Granville Sharp would dedicate his life and numerous writings to the cause of freeing slaves in England.

Granville Sharp:

Granville Sharp In fact, his writings even influenced the cause of abolition in America up through the Civil War. During his life, Granville Sharp laid the plans for the free colony of Sierra Leone where former slaves could return if they so desired. A settlement there was named after him, but later changed to “Freetown.”

Granville Sharp:

Granville Sharp Freetown was once called Granvilletown .

The Granville Sharp Rule:

The Granville Sharp Rule Other than his work with William Wilberforce, Granville Sharp is best known for a Greek grammatical rule which is named after him. After studying the Biblical Greek usage of the definite article (“the”) with the conjunction (“and”), Sharp came up with several rules, one of which is important to the deity of Christ.

The Granville Sharp Rule:

The Granville Sharp Rule The most important rule states this: “When two personal nouns of the same case are connected by the copulative kai [and], if the former has the definitive [definite] article, and the latter has not, they relate to the same person.” This can be illustrated in the following diagram:

The Granville Sharp Rule:

The Granville Sharp Rule Personal Noun Personal Noun (same case) Definite Article (“the”) No Definite Article “And” = Both nouns relate to the same person.

The Granville Sharp Rule:

The Granville Sharp Rule This is important for understanding the deity of Christ in the following verses: Ephesians 5:5; 2 Thessalonians 1:12; 1 Timothy 5:21; 2 Timothy 4:1; Titus 2:13b; 2 Peter 1:1, 2:20, 3:18; and Jude 4.

The Granville Sharp Rule:

The Granville Sharp Rule For example, 2 Peter 1:1 states: “To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours…” Is this verse talking about the Father (God) and Jesus? Or is Peter calling Jesus both God and Savior? Let’s follow the Granville Sharp’s rule:

The Granville Sharp Rule:

The Granville Sharp Rule God Savior of the and = Both nouns relate to the same person, Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ. (personal noun with def. article) (personal noun of the same case with no def. article) of us Connected by “and”

The Granville Sharp Rule:

The Granville Sharp Rule The rule shows us that these verses support the deity of Christ. Regarding 2 Peter 1:1, Mr. Sharp noted: “As the article…is not repeated before the next descriptive noun…it is manifest that both the nouns are to be referred to one and the same person...‘By the righteousness of Jesus Christ, our God and our Saviour.’”

The Granville Sharp Rule:

The Granville Sharp Rule If we apply this rule to Ephesians 4:11, then we have four ministry gifts, not five, because the last two, “pastors and teachers” seems to fit the rule. The first noun (“pastors”) has the definite article and the second noun (“teachers”) does not.

The Granville Sharp Rule:

The Granville Sharp Rule However, as is the case with most rules, there are exceptions. Granville Sharp recognized that personal, plural nouns were an exception to the rule. Granville Sharp explained:

The Granville Sharp Rule:

The Granville Sharp Rule “There is no exception or instance of the like mode of expression, that I know of, which necessarily requires a construction different from what is here laid down, EXCEPT the nouns be proper names , or in the plural number ; in which cases there are numerous exceptions; though there are not wanting examples, even of plural nouns, which are expressed exactly agreeable to this rule.”

The Granville Sharp Rule:

The Granville Sharp Rule “In other words, in the construction article-noun- καί -noun Sharp delineated four requirements that he felt needed to be met if the two nouns were necessarily to be seen as having the same referent: Both nouns must be (1) personal (they must refer to a person, not a thing), (2) common epithets (not proper names), (3) in the same case, and (4) singular in number.”

The Granville Sharp Rule:

The Granville Sharp Rule “The significance of these requirements can hardly be overestimated, for those who have misunderstood Sharp’s rule have done so almost without exception because they were unaware of the restrictions that Sharp set forth” (Wallace 606).

The Granville Sharp Rule:

The Granville Sharp Rule Ephesians 4:11 has plural nouns and therefore may be an exception to the rule. That it is an exception can be seen from the following similar phrases with plural nouns. Though “Pharisees and Sadducees” (plural nouns) are sometimes grouped together (e.g. Mt. 3:7; Acts 23:7), they are clearly distinguished elsewhere (e.g. Acts 23:8).

The Granville Sharp Rule:

The Granville Sharp Rule This can be also seen with the “Epicureans and Stoics” (Acts 17:18). They may be grouped together for the author’s purpose, but that doesn’t make them the same.

The Granville Sharp Rule:

The Granville Sharp Rule Especially pertinent to our discussion is that Paul groups “apostles and prophets” together in Ephesians 2:20 and 3:5 in the same manner. Yet they are clearly delineated in Ephesians 4:11. In other words, they can be grouped together for the author’s purpose, but that doesn’t make them the same.

The Granville Sharp Rule:

The Granville Sharp Rule D. A. Carson points out, “The fallacy is in taking the [Granville Sharp] rule too absolutely; for certain qualifications are necessary if the hard evidence is to be covered by the rule. If one article governs two substantives joined by kai, it does not necessarily follow that the two substantives refer to the same thing, but only that the two substantives are grouped together to function in some respects as a single entity” (Carson 84-85).

The Granville Sharp Rule:

The Granville Sharp Rule Thus, Ephesians 4:11 groups pastors and teachers together, but does not make them the same gift. Most likely Paul grouped pastors and teachers together because they have similar roles in the building up of the local church. They are not so sharply distinguished as apostles, prophets, and evangelists in this ministry.

The Granville Sharp Rule:

The Granville Sharp Rule Thus, when Paul wrote of the foundational ministry, he grouped apostles and prophets together (Eph. 2:20). When he wrote about those who were to receive the mystery of the gospel, Paul again grouped apostles and prophets together (Eph. 3:5). Yet we clearly see that these gifts are distinct.

The Granville Sharp Rule:

The Granville Sharp Rule Similarly, since the context of Ephesians 4 is about the building up of the members in general, then we would expect Paul to group pastors and teachers together (Eph. 4:11). Their purpose in ministry in this regard is closely related in the maturing of the members of the local church. Thus, there are five gift ministries in Ephesians 4:11, not four.

The Granville Sharp Rule:

The Granville Sharp Rule Carson, D. A. Exegetical Fallacies. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1984. Wallace, Daniel. “Granville Sharp: A Model of Evangelical Scholarship and Social Activism,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 41, 1998. Sharp, Granville. Remarks on the Uses of the Definitive Article in the Greek Text of the New Testament Containing Many New Proofs of the Divinity of Christ, from Passages Which Are Wrongly Translated in the Common English Version , 1798.