ὡς as adverbial relative followed by indicative

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Stephen Hughes
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Joined: February 26th, 2013, 7:12 am

ὡς as adverbial relative followed by indicative

Post by Stephen Hughes »

Is ὡς as an adverbial relative always followed by a verbal clause in the indicative? Is the verb of the clause ever in the future?

I'm guessing that the difference in usage / meaning between this usage and its use with the participle is that it is more like its use with nouns - comparison, while with the indicative it is more generally adverbial. It seems like an interesting and versatile word.
Γελᾷ δ' ὁ μωρός, κἄν τι μὴ γέλοιον ᾖ
(Menander, Γνῶμαι μονόστιχοι 108)
Jonathan Robie
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Re: ὡς as adverbial relative followed by indicative

Post by Jonathan Robie »

BDAG devotes 3 entire pages to ὡς, carefully delineating various usages with lots of examples. Well worth reading.
ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;
http://jonathanrobie.biblicalhumanities.org/
Stephen Hughes
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Joined: February 26th, 2013, 7:12 am

Re: ὡς as adverbial relative followed by indicative

Post by Stephen Hughes »

Jonathan Robie wrote:BDAG devotes 3 entire pages to ὡς, carefully delineating various usages with lots of examples. Well worth reading.
You have long known that I am this strange type of fellow, who presses hardly on the forbearance of other with his penchant to form opinions and half-educated guesses in his own mind from ignorantly interpreted examples so far as possible before consulting standard reference works. In this case, I am at a loss as to how to find examples with other tenses or moods. I will use your suggestion of BDAG as a first port of call rather than a destination, if I can find not other way forward.

I think that John 2:9's adverbial phrase Ὡς δὲ ἐγεύσατο ὁ ἀρχιτρίκλινος τὸ ὕδωρ οἶνον γεγενημένον , καὶ οὐκ ᾔδει πόθεν ἐστίν — οἱ δὲ διάκονοι ᾔδεισαν οἱ ἠντληκότες τὸ ὕδωρ — is wonderfully complex - it expresses both the temporal circumstances and the reasons of his ignorance that gave rise to the ἀρχιτρίκλινος calling the νυμφίος and giving him an earful for something that he had absolutely no idea that had happened. Reading it as an adverbial clause of time AND manner makes it somewhat humorous. Just translating Ὡς as "when" doesn't do justice to it.
Γελᾷ δ' ὁ μωρός, κἄν τι μὴ γέλοιον ᾖ
(Menander, Γνῶμαι μονόστιχοι 108)
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