Re: Isaiah 9:1 (LXX)

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Mon Mar 31 1997 - 13:54:16 EST


At 7:49 PM -0600 3/30/97, Mr. Timothy T. Dickens wrote:
>At 06:44 PM 3/30/97 -0500, Edward Hobbs wrote:
>>
>>First off, the opening NPs are Vocatives, which look just like nominatives.
>>So you have:
>
>>"You people walking in darkness: Behold a great light!
>>You who are dwelling in the region of the shadow of death, a light will
>>shine upon you!"
>
>TTD: Ed, this form is possible, i.e., nominative, masc. pl, and vocatives
>are identical, but why make them vocative in this context? Are you
>suggesting this from the previous lines, Isa. 8:23b onwards?
>

The reason they must be understood as vocatives in this context is that
IDETE immediately following the first is 2nd pl. imperative that must be
addressed to a plural audience indicated in the preceding phrase, and that
the clause following the second one ends in LAMYEI EF' hUMAS, and so is
likewise a statement addressed TO the people addressed in the vocative
phrase preceding it.

>>--AMHTOS is "harvest"; see LSJM.
>
>TTD: I noticed that amhtos can ALSO mean milk. Personally, I like your
>translation better, but why choose harvest over milk? Help me to better to
>decide which form to use.

I don't see any indication anywhere that the GREEK word AMHTOS could mean
"milk." And I assume we ARE talking about the LXX text, not the Hebrew MT.

>>--KATHGAGES is plain garden variety 2s, 1 aorist, of KATAGW.
>
>TTD: ED, I do not know if you are familiar with a reference called _Verbi
>Greci_, but it lists a similiar form (KATHGAGON) as 2nd aorist of katagw.
>BAG also lists this verb as 2nd. Aorist. The first aorist, rarely used acc.
>to LSJ, is kathza (z=ksi). Thus, it looks like it is 2nd. aorist.

Edward goofed; he knows perfectly well that it's a second aorist; he was
probably just thinking "garden variety aorist." You will catch ME making
that sort of error much more often than you will catch him.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, USA 63130
(314) 935-4018
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwc@oui.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/



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