From: Eric Weiss (eweiss@gte.net)
Date: Sun May 06 2001 - 00:42:16 EDT
While reading Matthew, in 8:23 and 9:27 I noticed what appears to be a
dative absolute functioning like the genitive absolute:
KAI EMBANTI AUTWi EIS TO PLOION HKOLOUQHSAN AUTWi hOI MAQHTAI AUTOU
KAI PARAGONTI EKEIQEN TWi IHSOU HKOLOUQHSAN [AUTWi] DUO TUFLOI KRAZONTES
KAI LEGONTES ELEHSON hHMAS, hUIOS DAUID
Yet, I could not confirm this in Wallace, Smyth, BDF, Brooks-Winbery,
Zerwick, or Robertson & Davis by looking in their indexes either for
these verses or for the term "dative absolute" under "Dative" -- unless,
of course, I overlooked it. Porter's IDIOMS says "It is debated by
grammarians whether there are examples of the dative absolute in the
Greek of the NT." (p. 184). Richard Young's INTERMEDIATE grammar
discusses Matthew 8:23 but doesn't suggest that the dative participle
and pronoun are a "dative absolute."
I did however find both verses discussed as Dative Absolutes in
Perschbacher's NEW TESTAMENT GREEK SYNTAX.(also Acts 22:6 & 17), and THE
EXPOSITOR'S GREEK TESTAMENT suggests it might be such at Matthew 8:23.
So ... is Perschbacher being idiosyncratic or iconoclastic (he does,
however, say its usage is rare in the NT)? Or is it that these other
widely-used grammars have omitted a Greek grammatical construction in
their discussion of the usages of the dative?
Or am I misunderstanding or overlooking something?
--
Eric S. Weiss
http://home1.gte.net/eweiss/index.htm
S.D.G.
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