[b-greek] Re: Question about Phil 1:7

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Tue Feb 06 2001 - 10:37:11 EST


At 8:14 AM -0800 2/6/01, Christian Cryder wrote:
>Hi Carl,
>
>> In fact hUMAS is plural;
>
>Whoops, of course. Not sure what I was thinking when I said that. ;-)
>
>> One cannot, in fact, always be absolutely sure: there are some

>> striking instances of ambiguity, but normally the first of two
>> accusatives in the vicinity of an infinitive that requires an
>> accusative subject is in fact the subject of it while the later
>> accusative is the object. This is actually a rather common
>> construction in NT Greek.
>
>Great. That's what I was wondering...I noticed several other examples like
>this in the first chapter of Phil.

By now you will have realized that there is (almost) always an alternative
viewpoint expressed on B-Greek on some issues. The present one is no
exception. And as I noted, the ambiguity is there in any instance where
there are two accusatives present, one of which must be the subject and the
other the object of an infinitive. Iver Larsen argues that hUMAS is more
likely the subject of the infinitive here and ME the object. I might have
been inclined to agree on the basis that an enclitic ME following the
infinitive suggests that ME is an object, but on the other hand, I don't
think the ME is emphatic in any case (I think we would have had EME
preceding the infinitive), and it is by no means uncommon for the
accusative subject of an infinitive to follow that infinitive.

I'm still more inclined to think that ME is the subject, hUMAS the object
of ECEIN, and yet, given the unquestionably mutual/reciprocal--shall we
say--"cordiality" of feelings of Paul and the Philippian congregation, I
don't think it really makes much difference here.

--

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
cwconrad@ioa.com
http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/

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