A couple of weeks ago, I noticed in the Grammatical Relationships section of the Bible Word Study report for εὐχαριστέω an interesting pattern regarding the objects of εὐχαριστέω. I wrote this in a blog post at the Logos Bible Software blog:
Of the 23 complements or objects of the verb (i.e., who is being thanked), they are nearly all God. The only human objects are Prisca and Aquila (Rom 16:3). The rest of the references are God—and arguably, God the Father. (Jesus is the object one time [Lk 17:16].) I realize that God can refer to the Triune God, but the contexts and general pattern suggest that the Father is in view.
Thanks is given to
- the Father (Col 1:11–12; cf. Jn 11:41)
- God the Father through Jesus (Rom 1:8; Col 3:17)
- God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Col 1:3–5)
- God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Eph 5:20)
- God [who is distinguished in the context from Christ] (Rom 14:6; 1 Cor 1:4, 14; Phil 1:3-6; 1 Thes 2:13; 2 Thes 1:3; 2:13; Phm 4-5; Rev 11:17?; cf. Lk 18:11)
- God [who is later identified as the Father] (1 Thes 1:2–4)
- God [undefined in the immediate context] (Acts 27:35; 28:15; 1 Cor 14:18)
This pattern reminded me of a similar pattern that I gave some thought to a couple of months ago.
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