From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Mon Jul 30 2001 - 08:04:43 EDT
At 7:35 AM -0400 7/30/01, Rbsads@aol.com wrote:
>hOTI OUK EN TWi PERISSEUEIN TINI hH ZWH AUTOU ESTIN EK TWN hUPARCONTWN AUTWi.
[I've made slight alterations to the transliteration]
>
>There seem to be various ways in which this verse might be translated given
>different use for EN TWi PERISSEUEIN and TINI; none of which seems to me to
>give any significant difference in meaning. But being a beginner, I am
>trying, probably too hard, to understand some of these different
>constructions.
>
>Richard Young gives EN TWi PERISSEUEIN as the example of the epexegetical use
>of EN TW plus an infinitive. With this function, the prepositional
>infinitive construction would seem to explain what life is not.
>
>The dative form, TINI, would then have what function? Does it act as a
>possessive for the infinitive PERISSEUEIN? This might be translated as "life
>is not in anyone's increasing of his possessions."
>
>It seems possible, maybe even better, to me that TINI could be associated
>with the verb ESTIN, and thereby understood to function as a predicate dative
>of possession for hH ZWN AUTOU. This might be translated as "his life is not
>to anyone in the increasing of his possessions." This of course makes a
>redundant expression, but would seem to be acceptable if rendered in English
>as something like, "No one has his life in the increasing of his possessions."
To me the strangest feature of word-order here is the position of the TINI
so that it appears it should be construed with the infinitive phrase rather
than with ESTIN--although, as you've noted, that would be a natural usage
of a possessive dative also.
I am personally more inclined to want to take the TINI with the
prepositional phrase: "It is not in anyone's being especially prosperous
that his life exists from his possessions."
The word-order does seem rather awkward: EN TWi PERISSEUEIN would indeed
seem to clarify the main proposition enough that it should follow rather
than precede that main part of the clause: "A person's life does not depend
upon his possessions--in the superabundance (of them)." I think you're
right that the real sense of the whole is not in question, but the
word-order is odd enough to raise the question about the rhetorical intent.
Perhaps:
"It isn't in a person's material prosperity that his life resides." That
seems to be the real sense, but after EN TWi PERISSEUEIN the EK TWN
hUPARCONTWN AUTWi seems superfluous. Perhaps: "It isn't in one's being
better off that a persons LIFE consists, i.e., from his possessions."
>And to return to consideration of the infinitive construction, is it possible
>that it could be understood as expressing means, rather than as explanation?
>If the construction is understood to have an epexegetical function it might
>be translated as "life is not in the increasing of possessions" It seems
>possible to translate the construction with a function of means - "life is
>not by the increasing of possessions."
>
>It is plain that there is no real semantic difference among these varying
>interpretations, but it has helped me to consider the different possibilities.
>
>My translation variations are:
>
>His life is not in anyone's increasing of his possessions.
>His life is not by anyone's increasing of his possessions.
>
>No one has his life in the increasing of his possessions.
>No one has his life by the increasing of his possessions.
>
>(BTW, I prefer the last translation. That is if it is one of the possible
>renderings.)
>
>First, please let me know if my considerations of the possible structures and
>functions are in a reasonable direction.
>
>Second, please let me know if persons fluent in Greek can actually speak
>sentences with such difficult ordering as this verse has.<g>
Of course they can SPEAK them; the question is whether they can be readily
understood by LISTENERS fluent in Greek. The sentence as it stands in the
text really strikes me as a colloquial construction. Once again I'll try:
"It isn't in a person's being better off that his LIFE resides, i.e. from
his possessions."
>PS
>Please let me know if I am sending duplicate messages. I have again tried the
>AOL fix.
No, no HTML duplicate that I can see. You have succeeded splendidly in
sending a plain-text ASCII message: proof for the doubters that it CAN be
done with AOL.
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad@ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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