From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Mon Aug 14 1995 - 12:20:31 EDT
At 12:26 AM 8/14/95, Kenneth Litwak wrote:
> I'd appreciate a little help with the syntax of Mt 16:13.
>1. Why is Tina used, instead of tis, given that the logical subject of a
>question would normally, I would think, be in the nominative?
>2. Should this be rendered "Whom do they say the Son of Man to be? ??
>3. If einai is the verb which goes with ton (uion tou anthrwpou, is
>this a case of an accusative subject for an infinitive, or is it an
>excedption to the rule that eimi takes nominatives?
>Thanks in advance.
(1) TINA is used here because LEGOUSIN is here a verb governing the
indirect discourse/acc. + inf. construction. If the question had been
phrased directly, it WOULD have been: TIS ESTIN hO hUIOS TOU
ANQRWPOU?--but here the big antiththesis is what OTHERS say of J's identity
and what the DISCIPLES say, so the construction is indirect discourse.
(2) You could translate it this way literally, but I'd say that's archaic
(I wish it weren't, but in fact nobody actually talks that way, and the
literal translation is altogether archaic in English; therefore: "Who do
they say the Son of Man is?" {I really think that the governing principle
on case of pronouns nowadays is: if it PRECEDES the verb, even if it's
technically the object of the verb, make it nominative; if it FOLLOWS the
verb (even if it's technically speaking a predicate word), make it
accusative. Hence: "It is me." Does anybody still say, "It is I" in polite
society?}
(3) Yes, it is an instance of acc. subject of the infinitive.
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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