From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Wed Apr 17 2002 - 07:15:25 EDT
At 10:53 AM +0000 4/17/02, Jack Stewart wrote:
>Dear All,
>
>We read in Eph. 5:5:
>
>TOUTO GAR ISTE GINWSKONTES -
>
>I am unfamiliar with this construction - having a perfect imperative
>followed by a present participle. I suppose literally it is something like
>"Know this knowing...etc." i.e.: meaning "Certainly know this...etc. Is
>this right? Does this construction have a particular grammatical
>designation?
While ISTE could be an imperative, it could just as well be (and I think it
is) an indicative. That ISTE is perfect tense is not really problematic,
because this verb (actually the same as EIDON, aorist) has the sense "know"
only in the perfect (just as hESTHKA has the sense "be standing" only in
the perfect).
The grammatical construction here is the use of the participle in
conjunction with verbs of perception (OIDA is indeed a verb of perception
as the perfect of EIDON) for indirect discourse, whereas indirect discourse
more normally takes an infinitive when the verb is of speaking.
So the phrase means: "For you know that you know this ..." or, if one does
read ISTE as imperative rather than indicative, "For know (you/ye) that you
know this ..."
--
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/
---
B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
You are currently subscribed to b-greek as: [jwrobie@mindspring.com]
To unsubscribe, forward this message to leave-b-greek-327Q@franklin.oit.unc.edu
To subscribe, send a message to subscribe-b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:37:24 EDT