A Semitism if ever there was one; Hebrew at least begins a relative clause
with an ASHER and then uses a pronoun in the proper linkage at its own more
appropriate place in the clause; so here hOU and AUTOU both point to hO
OPISW MOU ERCOMENOS as antecendent; idiomatic English would phrase it:
"whose sandal-strap I am unworthy to untie." Literally (I always thought it
would be fun to write English this way!): "whose I am not worthy that I
should untie his strap of the sandal"--it has an echt Yiddish ring to it.
But curiously it also has that distinctive Koine harbinger of Modern Greek:
hINA + subjunctive as a substitute for and ultimately the replacement for
the ancient infinitive.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad@yancey.main.nc.us
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/