From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Tue Aug 15 1995 - 10:31:08 EDT
At 4:00 AM 8/25/95, Eric Weiss wrote:
>John 6:55 says:
>
> hey gar sarx mou alethes estin brosis, kai to haima mou alethes estin
> posis. "For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink."
>
>Are the uses of alethes attributive or predicate? There is no article
>immediately before alethes, and the equative or copulative verb estin may
>indicate a predicate usage. If attributive, this seems to be an odd way of
>saying this--wouldn't estin brosis alethes/posis alethes or estin alethes
>brosis/alethes posis be a more normal attributive structure?
>
>The reason I'm asking is: If it's predicate, how would you translate it:
>"For
>my flesh is food that is true, and my blood is drink that is true"? (This
>is a
>moot point if alethes is in fact attributive.) Is the meaning a little
>different if alethes is in fact used predicatively rather than attributively?
>If so, how would you bring this out in translation?
>
>Thanks!
You don't need an article with an adjective for it to have attributive
sense, but in this particular instance, I think it could reasonably be
argued that ALHQHS is indeed predicative; certainly it is rhetorically
emphasized, and your suggested version, "For my flesh is food that is true,
and my blood is drink that is true" is right on the mark.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, USA 63130
(314) 935-4018
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwc@oui.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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