κατίωται

How do I work out the meaning of a Greek text? How can I best understand the forms and vocabulary in this particular text?
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Danny King
Posts: 35
Joined: May 22nd, 2015, 4:52 am

κατίωται

Post by Danny King »

ὁ χρυσὸς ὑμῶν καὶ ὁ ἄργυρος κατίωται καὶ ὁ ἰὸς αὐτῶν εἰς μαρτύριον ὑμῖν ἔσται καὶ φάγεται τὰς σάρκας ὑμῶν· ὡς πῦρ. ἐθησαυρίσατε ἐν ἐσχάταις ἡμέραις. James 5:3

Why is κατίωται perfect tense? Where is the duplication? Shouldn't it be κεκατίωται? Or is it a compound verb with κατά? How do you tell apart the present tense and perfect tense middle/passive forms?
Robert Emil Berge
Posts: 63
Joined: August 24th, 2016, 1:34 pm

Re: κατίωται

Post by Robert Emil Berge »

The verb is κατ-ιόομαι, so you are right that it is a compound verb with κατά, and the reduplication is therefore by lengthening the iota. This could be either a present subjunctive or perfect indicative, but the present subjunctive would have the accent on ῶ, and it wouldn't make sense here, I think. The present indicative would be κατιοῦται.
Danny King
Posts: 35
Joined: May 22nd, 2015, 4:52 am

Re: κατίωται

Post by Danny King »

Thank you very much. This really helps. Is there a book I can buy that explains things the way you just did for the "difficult" words? Will Mounce's Morphology of Biblical Greek do the trick?
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