Denny Burk, Articular Infinitives In The Greek Of The NT

Stephen Hughes
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Denny Burk, Articular Infinitives In The Greek Of The NT

Post by Stephen Hughes »

Can anyone tell me what the tenor of Denny Burk's Articular Infinitives In The Greek Of The New Testament is?

The best I can find is one review here;
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/articul ... 1905048410
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Stephen Carlson
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Re: Denny Burk, Articular Infinitives In The Greek Of The NT

Post by Stephen Carlson »

I added the author's name to the topic title to more clearly indicate that the topic is about a book (in the active topics list).
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MAubrey
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Re: Denny Burk, Articular Infinitives In The Greek Of The NT

Post by MAubrey »

There's not much to say about it. He's conclusion are about as traditional as possible. He does little to further the state of the question. His methodology is inadequate. I think the most accurate assessment of his work in published reviews (though I can't find the one in question), described his proposal as "banal." Most of his interest in Greek Grammar appears to be motivated by his desire to argure doctrinal issues with N. T. Wright.
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Stephen Hughes
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Re: Denny Burk, Articular Infinitives In The Greek Of The NT

Post by Stephen Hughes »

Well...

Would there be any that you would recommend that make a valuable contribution to understanding this part of speech?

I only know this construction in a passive way and would like to be able to use it more skillfully in composition.
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Re: Denny Burk, Articular Infinitives In The Greek Of The NT

Post by cwconrad »

Stephen Hughes wrote:Well...

Would there be any that you would recommend that make a valuable contribution to understanding this part of speech?

I only know this construction in a passive way and would like to be able to use it more skillfully in composition.
Probably a study of ways in which the articular infinitive is used in Greek narrative and expository literature by several authors, especially in the course of the Hellenistic era, would be quite illuminating I think. A good deal could be learned, I think, through careful analysis of usage of the construction in Luke's gospel. I still recall my fascination decades ago with the Aristotelian phrase, τὸ τί ἧν εἶναι and with Bruno Snell's essay on the invention of the articlle and the innovative Greek way of substantivizing any kind of expression (in Entdeckung des Geistes, tr. Discovery of the Mind.
οὔτοι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν,
ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητέοντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον. (Xenophanes, Fragment 16)

Carl W. Conrad
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Stephen Hughes
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Re: Denny Burk, Articular Infinitives In The Greek Of The NT

Post by Stephen Hughes »

Is the articular infinitive markedly different from the non-articular infinitive (in certain constructions)? Or is it one of those things that was "felt" enough to be changed during the course of redaction? Or perhaps "not felt" to a degree that addition or omission was not problematic?
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Re: Denny Burk, Articular Infinitives In The Greek Of The NT

Post by MAubrey »

Stephen Hughes wrote:Is the articular infinitive markedly different from the non-articular infinitive (in certain constructions)? Or is it one of those things that was "felt" enough to be changed during the course of redaction? Or perhaps "not felt" to a degree that addition or omission was not problematic?
That's something that you may want to take the time to work through some data to see for yourself...reading a few grammars wouldn't hurt either.

One major function of the articular infinitive that a bare infinitive cannot fill is to help distinguish between infinitives in prepositional phrases and preposition-compound infinitives.
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Re: Denny Burk, Articular Infinitives In The Greek Of The NT

Post by Stephen Hughes »

MAubrey wrote:That's something that you may want to take the time to work through some data to see for yourself.
That is a good idea, and both the last resort and the logical outcome of any question.
Stephen Hughes wrote:Can anyone tell me what the tenor of Denny Burk's Articular Infinitives In The Greek Of The New Testament is?
I was hoping that Burk had done something of the sort in his work.
Stephen Hughes wrote:Open question: How can I generate a list of all the articular infinitives in the NT corpus?
Hefin J. Jones wrote:I've just done it - over 200 examples - I can send you a pdf
I am glad that Heffin Jones' prepared some lists for me to find the articular infinitives in the NT in the standard schoarly text, and that is somewhat underway, it saves me reading right through to find them.

Honestly, though, it is too subtle a question and frankly beyond my present level of compentence with the language.

I don't know Greek well enough to recognise whether what I think I have found from a study of the texts is in fact an idiomatic understanding or just a logical conclusion.
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Re: Denny Burk, Articular Infinitives In The Greek Of The NT

Post by MAubrey »

Stephen Hughes wrote:I am glad that Heffin Jones' prepared some lists for me to find the articular infinitives in the NT in the standard schoarly text, and that is somewhat underway, it saves me reading right through to find them.
Stephen, if you are intent on continuing this kind of work on Greek, you're going to want to purchase the resources for doing these searches yourself.
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Stephen Hughes
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Re: Denny Burk, Articular Infinitives In The Greek Of The NT

Post by Stephen Hughes »

MAubrey wrote:Stephen, if you are intent on continuing this kind of work on Greek, you're going to want to purchase the resources for doing these searches yourself.
Well, I see your point, and in a way it would be "myself" in that Heffin wouldn't have needed to have sent me that list of verses, but in another way it is not "myself" doing it. I could buy a computer and the software to do things for me, but I'm get the impression that that will take me away from my personal interaction with the text.

I get so much from the Greek, by just reading through it. I do word searches on the Kata Biblon site from time to time and they are helpful to some degree. Even then, I need to go back into the text to see what I think about it. Of course, like any other primates, I can recognise patterns and spot inconsistencies, but how can I use that effectively?
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