From: clayton stirling bartholomew (c.s.bartholomew@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Fri Jul 02 1999 - 12:14:59 EDT
>>I would appreciate some help in understanding the use of verb tense in
>>dependent clauses. The text reads; ...KAI EPISTEUSAN OSOI HSAN
>>TETAGMENOI EIS ZWHN AIWNION. I take the dependent clause as an
>>adverbial relative clause, either of condition or possibly comparison
>>(yes?). Is the use of the periphastic pluperfect relative to the main
>>verb, implying the action occurred prior to the action of the main verb,
>>or is this only true with participles (non-periphrastic, that is)? I'm
>>just interested in the grammar, please.
>
> It is a *substantive* clause (the subject). From a syntactic point
> of view some people would prefer not to call here O(/SOI a relative, as
> long as a) it is the subject of his own subordinate clause, but, b) it has
> no antecedent or consecuent, either implicit or explicit. (In Spanish some
> call it a "relacionante", bit I don't know the English term)
>
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Daniel Ria–o Rufilanchas
> Madrid, Espa–a
>
Daniel, Paul, Moon-Ryul,
Yes, I can see this as one way to read this text. However , I see
another way of reading it. If we take TA EQNH as the subject of all
three finite verbs then we can take hOSOI HSAN TETAGMENOI EIS ZWHN
AIWNION as limiting the scope of TA EQNH. If you read the text in this
manner it is this limited set of TA EQNH that is performing the action
in all three finite verbs. Doubtless someone will say hOSOI should be a
neuter plural if it is to be used like this but I don't see that as a
big hurdle to get over since the subject under discussion is the men who
believed who were, oh by the way, Gentiles.
OK, so this is a little far fetched. Your reading is probably correct.
-- Clayton Stirling Bartholomew Three Tree Point P.O. Box 255 Seahurst WA 98062--- B-Greek home page: http://sunsite.unc.edu/bgreek You are currently subscribed to b-greek as: [cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu] To unsubscribe, forward this message to leave-b-greek-329W@franklin.oit.unc.edu To subscribe, send a message to subscribe-b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu
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