Hmmm...looking at the BDR equivalent, I think *your* explanation is clearer
and more detailed. Without your explanation, I would have a hard time
understanding
this.
>In effect, there are forms
>equivalent in meaning, the "third aorist" ESTHN and the "aorist passive"
>ESTAQHN. The former is older and much more widely prevalent, the latter
>found often enough in Hellenistic Greek. But there is no difference
>whatsoever in meaning.
Rats. I've avoided reading all those messages about "third aorist", since
I've been trying to avoid synaptic overload. But now I'll have to go back
and read them...
>The syntactic sequence here of aorist ptc. + verb in
>a narrative tense is bread-and-butter Greek narrative: in English we tend
>to use a compound predicate: "He stood and raised his voice and spoke to
>them; Greek tends rather to subordinate the first of these verbs--and
>sometimes more than one--into a participle: "After standing he raised his
>voice and spoke to them."
Thanks, this is very helpful.
>>Acts 2:12 (GNT) existanto de pantes kai dihporoun, allos pros allon
>>legontes: ti qelei touto einai;
>
>Jonathan, I think you've discovered, unwittingly or (I think) wittingly, a
>marvelous new signature quote. Understand it of a class of students of
>Greek confronting a new construction: I translate it loosely (some will
>say: all too loosely) thus: "And they were all dumbfounded and scratched
>their heads in bewilderment, and said to each other: 'What the hell does
>this mean?'"
Actually, I *did* know what I was doing when I put this in my signature.
I spend a lot of my life in this state!
Jonathan
Acts 2:12 (GNT) existanto de pantes kai dihporoun, allos pros allon
legontes: ti qelei touto einai;
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Jonathan Robie
POET Software, 3207 Gibson Road, Durham, N.C., 27703
Ph: 919.598.5728 Fax: 919.598.6728
email: jwrobie@mindspring.com, jonathan@poet.com
http://www.poet.com <--- shockwave enabled!
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