Re: Gal. 5:16 -- OU MH TELESHTE

From: Paul R. Zellmer (zellmer@cag.pworld.net.ph)
Date: Wed Jul 15 1998 - 05:50:51 EDT


> Hello all,
> I was wondering if anybody has any insight into why the NRSV
> translators chose to translate Galatians 5:16 (LEGW DE, PNEUMATI PERIPATEITE
> KAI EPIQUMIAN SARKOS OU MH TELESHTE) as "Live by the Spirit, I say, and do
> not gratify the desires of the flesh."? Zerwick says that TELESHTE is an
> aorist subjunctive and that the OU MH with the aorist subjunctive is an
> emphatic negative of future reference. Hence the translation should be
> (according to Zerwick) much like the NASB: "But I say, walk by the Spirit,
> and you *will not* carry out the desire of the flesh." I am a lurker on the
> list and really rusty in my Greek, especially when it comes to things like
> grammatical rules for OU MH + an aorist subjunctive. The question: should
> OU MH TELESHTE be translated "do not carry out/gratify" or "you will not
> carry out/gratify"? There is obviously a huge difference in interpretation
> of this particular passage with two totally different meanings. Thanks.
>
> Justin

Justin,

This form is found some one hundred times in the text, and Zerwick's
position is fairly well demonstrated. Robertson discussed this on 929f,
and both Burton and Moulton as holding this position. A couple of other
references that show this emphatic negation of the future indicative are
the OT quote in Hebrews 13:5, and the three command with their
consequences in Luke 6:37.

You're not as rusty as you think.

Paul
The difficulty with your suggested translation is that you lose all the
sense of the subjunctive.

-- 
Paul and Dee Zellmer, Jimmy Guingab, Geoffrey Beltran
Ibanag Translation Project
Cabagan, Philippines

zellmer@faith.edu.ph

--- B-Greek home page: http://sunsite.unc.edu/bgreek You are currently subscribed to b-greek as: [cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu] To unsubscribe, forward this message to unsubscribe-b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu To subscribe, send a message to subscribe-b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:39:53 EDT