How very interesting, your rearrangement as thickened the porridge somewhat; ὀφείλει (if it is to be taken as an impersonal) would presumably be constructed like δεῖ with an accusative and infinitive or like συμφέρει with a dative and an infinitive. But that is not the case here. τὰ τέκνα must be taken as nominative, and hence the construction that we are looking at is here notcwconrad wrote:I think the negation has to be understood as οὐ τὰ τέκνα τοῖς γονεῦσιν ἀλλὰ οἱ γονεῖς τοῖς τέκνοις ὀφείλει θησαυρίζειν -- "it's not the children who should store up for parents but rather parents for children." The negation here does not qualify the verb ὀφείλει but rather the pair τὰ τέκνα τοῖς γονεῦσιν in contrast to the pair οἱ γονεῖς τοῖς τέκνοις.2 Cor 12:14 wrote:Ἰδοὺ τρίτον τοῦτο ἑτοίμως ἔχω ἐλθεῖν πρὸς ὑμᾶς, καὶ οὐ καταναρκήσω· οὐ γὰρ ζητῶ τὰ ὑμῶν ἀλλὰ ὑμᾶς. οὐ γὰρ ὀφείλει τὰ τέκνα τοῖς γονεῦσιν θησαυρίζειν ἀλλὰ οἱ γονεῖς τοῖς τέκνοις
- <Subject> + οὐκ ὀφείλει + <Infinitive>
but rather
- <Subject> + οὐκ ὀφείλειν + <Infinitive>
Treated as full verb, then, ὀφείλειν would be negated regularly, with the negation like before it, "Children are (is) not obliged to... but rather parents [are obliged to ...] ...".
Applying that to
the verse comes out rather less forcefully as something like what I wrote further up the thread.1 Corinthians 11:7 wrote:Ἀνὴρ μὲν γὰρ οὐκ ὀφείλει κατακαλύπτεσθαι τὴν κεφαλήν,
Does anyone have a ready list of verbs that followed by infinitives?
The negation only works with the sense of the verbal phrase ὀφείλουσιν θησαυρίζειν being understood with the οἱ γονεῖς τοῖς τέκνοις. The position of οὐ is determined by the usual sentence patterning of the first clause, not the upcoming part after the ἀλλά. The shortest example I could find just quickly isStephen Carlson wrote:If the following ἀλλά indicates the scope of the negation in the preceding clause (as I think it does), then it would seem that the position of the οὐ is not a fully reliable guide to the scope of the negation.
We wouldn't expect φρονεῖς οὐ τὰ τοῦ θεοῦ, ἀλλὰ τὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων** (This is not a quote, but a conjecture), would we?Matthew 16:23 wrote:οὐ φρονεῖς τὰ τοῦ θεοῦ, ἀλλὰ τὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων