[b-greek] More quibbles re: usage of TOU + Infinitive in Gal 3:10

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Sun Dec 03 2000 - 21:15:44 EST


At 9:07 AM -0600 12/3/00, Steven Craig Miller wrote:
>To: Carl W. Conrad,
>
><< ... the articular infinitive is in the aorist, which does suggest to me
>"so as to get them performed" rather than "so as to perform them
>continually/repeatedly." >>
>
>With all due respect (and there are no words which will do justice to my
>heartfelt thanks for your participation on this list and your willing to
>address these issues), I wonder if perhaps you might be reading a little
>too much into the aorist here? My own sense of this passage (for what it
>might be worth) is that TOU POIHSAI AUTA simply says the same thing as
>EMMENEI etc. In other words, to "abide by all things written in the book of
>the law" is simply the same thing as to "do them." While it is possible to
>say that the latter is the result of the former, it is also possible to say
>that the former is the result of the latter. That is the reason why I favor
>calling this epexegetic rather than result, although I would be willing to
>accept "result" as a grammatical category as long as one is willing to see
>it overlapping with the epexegetic sense. To take it as a strict result
>seems to me to be reading too much into this passage. For this reason, I
>personally would have problems with taking this passage to mean: "so as to
>get them performed," it seems to force a cause and result relationship on
>this passage.
>
>On the other hand, I will admit that I haven't given strictly a grammatical
>reason for my assertion, so much as my "common sense" understanding of this
>passage. (And we all know what sense is "common" to one person might not be
>"common" to another.)

I admitted it was a quibble and that the essential implication of the Greek
is the same even if TOU POIHSAI AUTA is NOT read grammatically as a result
construction. I did question whether "epexegetical" was quite appropriate
as a term for it if we understand the infinitive phrase as clarifying a
verb rather than a noun or adjective, but I went on to suggest that perhaps
it could be understood as an APPOSITIVE to EMMENEI--and I still think
that's plausible:

>and yet: it might perhaps as well be phrased: "Whoever does not abide
>by--i.e. get performed--all the things written in the book of the Law ..."
>That's not really purpose or result, nor is it an instrumental usage; one
>might call it, I suppose, appositional, but the one sort of clause that

On the other hand, Moon and also Alan Thomas have objected to my reading of
the aorist as perfective, apparently taking the view that there's no
significant difference between an aorist and a present infinitive in this
place. Alan Thomas asks:

>How would you see this relating to the aorist, which
>seems a bit out of place, in verse 12:
>
>ALL hO POIHSAS AUTA ZHSETAI EN AUTOIS
>
>Many translations seem to take this as an
>imperfective, "the one doing these things."
>
>This would seem to be in agreement with what Moon is
>trying to suggest, I think.

My own take on verse 12 would again be to understand it (whether or not one
converts it into English explicitly so) as perfective, in the sense:

"But the one who gets them performed will live by them" (or "But the one
who has performed them will live by them"). Or--since Paul probably
understands ZHSETAI in an eschatological sense, "will have life by them."
--

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/

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