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Re:Martha & Mary in John 11
Date: Mon, 19 Sep 94 10:34:41 EDT
From: Gray Temple <grayt1@jupiter.netdepot.com>
In John 11, both Martha and Mary speak similar things to Jesus: "Lord, if
you'd been here, my brother wouldn't have died." In all the english
versions I've seen, the sentences are identical. But in Greek, the word
order is different:
11:21: [Martha] Kyrie, ei Es hOde, ouk an apethanen ho adelphos mou.
11:32: [Mary] Kyrie, ei Es hOde, ouk an mou apethanen ho adelpos.
The 'mou' is in different places. What nuance does that convey?
If this were Modern Greek, I would say that 11:32 is an instance of
the Ethical Dative (``brother wouldn't have died on me''), the dative
having died and the genitive having taken over this function among
others. Of course, in Koine, the dative was alive and well. Still,
is there any possibility that the word order in 11:32 might have
conveyed such a connotation, or have I been reading too Dhimotiki?
-30-
Bob
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