From: Manolis Nikolaou (aei_didaskomenos@hotmail.com)
Date: Wed Apr 17 2002 - 08:08:27 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/
Semantically speaking: don't you think that the Byzantine version
TOUTO GAR *ESTE* GINWSKONTES (instead of *ISTE* GINWSKONTES) seems to make
more sense in this case?
Regards,
Manolis Nikolaou
Greece
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