374 David J. Armitage Paul uses the optative thirty-one times. Of these, fourteen are the formulaic mh; gevnoito (47). This idiom (48), used to express strong denial, has, according to Wallace (49), lost its distinctive optative nuance. The sense of the optative here would in any case be wish rather than potentiality. Thirteen Pauline optatives are in blessings or prayers (50), expressing wishes (51). Two more express wishes of other kinds (52). The final two examples both take the form of a fourth class protasis: eij tuvcoi (53). Louw and Nida identify this as an idiom: “literally ‘if it should happen’”, best translated as “probably” (54). Thus the only two instances in the Pauline epistles of optatives expressing potentiality rather than wish are strongly idiomatic. It is therefore reasonable to suppose that Pauline usage reflects the Hellenistic trend in which the subjunctive impinges on the semantic field of the classical optative. If Paul used a fourth class condition that would be a striking indication that he wished to make a point about the degree of contingency, but the choice of a third class condition cannot be pressed in the same way (55). II. The Conditional Clauses of Galatians 1,8-9 1. Gal 1,8 a) Lexical and syntactic issues Gal 1,8 raises the possibility of a gospel contrary to that preached by Paul and his associates being preached by them or by a heavenly (47) Rom 3,4.6.31; 6,2.15; 7,7.13; 9,14; 11,1.11; 1 Cor 6,15; Gal 2,17; 3,21; 6,14. (48) See J.L. BOYER “The Classification of Optatives: A Statistical Study”, GTJ 9/1 (1988) 131. (49) WALLACE, Grammar, 481. (50) Rom 15,5.13; 1 Thess 3,11.12; 5,23; 2 Thess 2,17; 3,5.16; 2 Tim 1,16.18. (51) As WALLACE points out (Grammar, 447), Paul presumably did not think that answers to these prayers were more contingent than if he had used the subjunctive. (52) 2 Tim 4,16; Philemon 1,20. (53) 1 Cor 14,10; 15,13. (54) J.P. LOUW – E.A. NIDA (eds.), Greek English Lexicon of the New Testament based on semantic domains (New York 1988) I, 670. See also BDAG (1019), where eij tuvcoi is described as a formula meaning “perhaps” or “if it should turn out that way.” (55) BOYER, “Optatives”, 139.