Re: Matt 8:8 EIPE LOGWi
Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Wed, 26 Nov 1997 12:32:10 -0600
At 11:21 AM -0600 11/26/97, Fred Haltom wrote:
>Jonathan Robie wrote:
>
>> At 02:53 PM 11/22/97 +0000, John M. Moe wrote:
>>
>> >In the account of the healing of the centurion's servant, the
>> >centurion requests "EIPE LOGWi" (Mat. 8:8, Luke 7:7). Mary
>> >Grosvenor calls this a "cognate dative" and directs the reader to
>> >Max Zerwick's grammar where he says. "This <<internal>> or
>> ><<cognate>> dative (so called because the noun has the same root as
>> >the verb), although it is not entirely foreign to classical usage,
>> >e.g. FUGH FEUGEIN, GAMWi GAMEIN, nevertheless clearly rests in the
>> >NT on a Semitic basis." (Zerwick, p. 21)"
>>
>> I'm really surprised nobody has responded. I talked with someone the
>> other day who agreed with Zerwick that this is a semitism, but I
>> wasn't clear enough on the details to post anything.
>
>
>Another possible explanation is that LOGWi is the regular dative of
>indirect object: "but only speak LOGWi (TO THE MATTER), and my child
>will be healed. 9 For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me,
>and I SPEAK TOUTWi (TO THIS ONE)....and ALLWi (TO ANOTHER)..
>.and TWi DOULWi (TO MY SERVANT)..." Matt 8:8-9
>
>All of the datives in this context are used the same way after a verb
>of speaking. CFD Moule does not list this passage as a Semitism.
>Moule usually sees semitic influence even when its doubtful. For him
>to omit this passage as a semitism is telling.
>
>Translating LOGWi as the matter at hand, i.e. the sickness of his
>child, allows for the normal useage of the dative here.
How many "indirect objects" in the dative do we know of that do not refer
to persons? I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but I think it must be very
rare.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
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WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/