From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Wed Sep 22 1999 - 20:16:04 EDT
At 3:26 PM -0500 9/22/99, Joseph Brian Tucker wrote:
>GINWSKEIN DE hUMAS BOULOMAI, ADELFOI, hOTI TA KAT EME MALLON EIS PROKOPHN
>TOU EUANGGELIOU ELHLUQEN, hWSTE TOUS DESMOUS MOU FANEROUS EN CRISTWi
>GENESQAI EN hOLWi Twi PRAITWRIWi KAI TOIS LOIPOIS PASIN, KAI TOUS PLEIONAS
>TWN ADELFWN EN KURIWi PEPOIQOTAS TOIS DESMOIS MOU PERISSOTERWS TOLMAN
>AFOBWS TON LOGON LALEIN.
>
>1. GINWSKEIN seems to be a complementary infinitive because of the presence
>of BOULOMAI and completes the thought? Is this correct?
I would prefer to say that acc. hUMAS and inf. GINWSKEIN together function
as the object of BOULOMAI: what do I want? I want: "you to know" or "that
you should know"
>2. The neuter plural article TA substantized the KAT' EME, thus creating an
>idiom: "the thing concerning me" or, better, "my circumstances." There
>seems to be a verb necessary after this phrase, what could it be?
>
>3. What is the force of the perfect ELHLUQEN? I am not going to ask about
>the classification, lest I incur the wrath of …just kidding.
Let's kill two birds with one stone and say that TA KAT' EME is a neuter
plural substantive and that ELHLUQEN is its verb.
>4. GENESQAI - aor. mid. Dep. Inf. Questions are:
>
>4.a. What should be understood as the masculine accusative plural subject
>of GENESQAI? TOUS DESMOUS?
Yes.
>4.b. Which word functions as a predicate adjective following GENESQAI?
FANEROUS
>5. It seems to me that EN CRISTWi is the main point of this clause, to
>bring out the force would, "with the natural result that my bonds have
>become manifest as being in Christ" acceptable or preferable?
Yes.
>6. How should one classify PASIN? (Oops, there I go again)
Dative to be construed with FANEROUS: those to whom it has become manifest
that ...
>7. Is the function of the KAI at the beginning of verse 14 a simple joining
>with verse 13 and thus concluding the sentence that began in verse 12?
I'd say it links a second acc.+ inf. construction to the first one,
indicating that both depend upon the hWSTE which introduced the first one.
>8. What is the function of PLEIONAS? A simple comparative adjective with
>the comparison implicit? (with the result that) most
Yes; I'd note this is a rather curious phenomenon; classical Greek would
have used simply TOUS POLLOUS ADELFOUS or else TO PLHQOS TWN ADELFWN to
mean "most of the brothers"--but it's evident that the positive degree no
longer seems to carry that implication that the majority are thus included
in the numbers.
>9. Wallace points out that ADELFWN should be seen as a partitive gen. not a
>genitive of comparison? Do you agree? (Am I doing it again?)
I would agree: TWN ADELFWN indicates what it's the greater number OF rather
than what it's a greater number THAN.
>10. Does the nuance of the perfect in PEPOIQOTAS indicate: "being convinced
>or confident"? I really would like a classification of this participle -
>even though Paul did not have it in mind when he wrote.
(a) the classification to be concerned about here is ADVERBIAL or
CIRCUMSTANTIAL, which is to say that it clarifies or qualifies the
infinitive TOLMAN: the fact that they "dare" is clarified by the fact that
they "are confident." The classification of the participle in the first
place should concern whether it construes primarily with a noun or pronoun
or with a verb or forms a substantive in conjunction with an article.
Circumstantial or adverbial participles are what you may want to
subclassify to help you work out a translation according to whether you
think the participle explains the WHY of the main verb or the WHEN, or the
like.
(b) the fact that PEPOIQOTAS is perfect has more to do with this particular
verb, the perfect of which has a powerful stative force: PEIQOMAI (present)
means "I am letting myself be persuaded" or "I am coming to be trustful";
the perfect PEPOIQA means "I am fully convinced" or "I trust
wholeheartedly."
>11. 3 modifying questions: I always have problems with these:
>
>11.a What does DESMOIS modify? Is it PEPOIQOTAS?
Yes; I don't think it is dative of the recipient of trust but rather
instrumental indicating the ground of confidence: "fully confident because
of my imprisonment ..."
>11.b What is the comparative adverb PERISSOTERWS modifying?
the infinitive TOLMAN: "the brothers dare more ..." The adjective PERISSOS
is a wonderful one with a fascinating history; originally it meant
something like "excessive"--it's the word in arithmetic for "odd" in
relationship to the word ARTIOS = "even" (the number TWO is ARTIOS because
it involves things that match, while the number THREE is PERISSOS because
it has an extra element outside the paired elements; then PERISSOS came to
mean "odd-ball" as used of persons that are eccentric, something like our
"extraordinary" but often with a bit of pejorative undertone; later it
comes to have some of the force of our very colloquial American adjective
"way out," or "size XXL."
>11.c What does the adverb AFOBWS modify?
the infinitive LALEIN.
>12. What type of verb does an infinitive usually complete? Does LALEIN
>conform to that here? What does it seems to complete?
TOLMAN: "dare to speak"--this is a "textbook case" of the complementary
infinitive
I hope this helps. One thing that seems to me to become abundantly clear
when we're doing this sort of exercise is that at least 75% of the problems
we have dealing with another language arise from either not having been
taught or not having had to work out clearly for oneself an understanding
of how the syntax of one's own language works.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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