QUESTION
I have a question concerning the phrase πολλῷ πλείους in John 4:41. Here is the context:
καὶ πολλῷ πλείους ἐπίστευσαν διὰ τὸν λόγον αὐτοῦ
Πολλῷ πλείους is generally rendered “many more,” but πολλῷ is dative and πλείους is nominative. What is the idiom here?
RESPONSE
When we encounter unfamiliar (infrequent) constructions and want to classify the syntax and grammatical relations (how it works in Greek), we first classify the morphology of the construction components and then look for precedents to tie the unfamiliar back to the familiar rules.
Πολύς and πλείων are adjectives by class (both with uncommon declensions). We take πολλῷ as modifier of the adjacent πλείους, as all interpretations naturally do. There are two levels of adjectives. Articles and generic pronouns like πόσος are also adjectives in a general sense (by lexical category). When an adjective (usually neuter) modifies a verb, adjective or adverb, it is adverbial. (Note the interplay between invariant lexical class and variable contextual function.)
Normally the declensional adverbial modifier is accusative (e.g., accusative in πολὺ σπουδαιότερον, 2 Cor 8:22). However, some adjectives, including πολύς, are sometimes dative when adverbial (see δημοσίᾳ, Acts 16:37, or ἰδίᾳ in 1 Cor. 12:11), particularly when modifying a comparative adverb or adjective. Πολλῳ μᾶλον, “much more” (more by much), is a common GNT phrase, where μᾶλον is a comparative adverb modified adverbially by a dative adjective. This common phrase is a close but not exact parallel of John 4:41, because μᾶλον is an adverb.
We see the dative adjective (pronominal) modifying the comparative adjective adverbially two times in Hebrews 1:4 (and 10:29) as a nearly exact parallel:
τοσούτῳ κρείττων γενόμενος τῶν ἀγγέλων ὅσῳ διαφορώτερον παρ’ αὐτοὺς κεκληρονόμηκεν ὄνομα (as much better)
This dative adverbial construction is grammatical but infrequent (although frequent with nouns). Note that the comparative adjective takes a genitive object of comparison, but a dative adverbial. And note that in John 4:41 πλείων is comparative. Although the exact construction with a dative adjective (by class) like πολλῷ modifying an adjective adverbially does not occur elsewhere in the completed quarter of the GNT (remember the two levels of adjectives) and thus might seem irregular to the student, nevertheless, the Hebrew parallels are exact using the broader definition of adjectives. So they are close enough to understand and legitimize the language pattern in John.
Also note that the adjective πλείων is substantival in John 4:41 (subject), but this function does not hinder πολλῷ from modifying it adverbially as an adjective. The case of the head (nominative) and its function are irrelevant to the adjective-modifies-adjective-adverbially idiom. They are like the extraneous fact in the algebra problem.
I dismiss the syntactical option of making πολλῷ adverbial to the verb (instead of the adjective) because πλείων is the first positional candidate for head by juxtaposition and since neuter dative adjectives modifying a verb are very rare and it appears semantically incorrect here.
—Dennis Kenaga