>Jonathan and several others have suggested that the dative LOGWi is a
>dative (instrumental) of means perhaps influenced by the Latin ablative of
>means. I would tend to agree with this. One of the things about language
>that causes grammararians to multiply categories is that some functions do
>not fit neatly into any category, hence, make a new one.
>
>To "speak with a word" seems to me in this context to be the simplest
I think it's interesting that the Roman Catholic church, which includes
this verse in its traditional liturgy, translates it from the Latin into
English as "Speak the word," as if the verb was simply one which required a
dative/ablative direct object. It's been a few years since I had Latin and
I'm quite rusty, but does anyone know of a Latin verb of speaking which
might have required an ablative DO? (And that might therefore have
prompted its Greek rendering in the Dative.)
Just a thought...
Nick---
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"There is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem."
(Booker T. Washington)