[b-greek] Re: Luke 5:34

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Mon Jul 09 2001 - 07:02:13 EDT


At 10:00 PM -0700 7/8/01, Kenneth Litwak wrote:
>Subject: Re: Luke 5:34: En hW
>From: "Carl W. Conrad"
><cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu>
>Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2001 05:35:48 -0400
>X-Message-Number: 4
>
>At 10:28 PM -0700 7/7/01, Kenneth Litwak wrote:
>> The last part of Luke 5:34 reads
>>EN hW hO NUMFIOS MET' AUTWN ESTIN POIHSAI
>NHSTEUSAI
>>
>>My question is this. EN hW with an infinitive
>>indicates concurrent action, "while x was
>happening,"
>>but I've not seen that done with the indicative,
>here,
>>ESTIN. Is this common? Or am I misunderstanding
>the
>>syntax? Thanks.

You ARE misunderstanding the syntax. EN hWi indicating concurrrent action
is regularly with a finite verb, not with an infinitive.

>>Ken, you're not seeing the WHOLE construction, if
>>you're trying to make
>>sense only of what you've cited. The text (UBS4)
>>reads MH DUNASQE TOUS
>>hUIOUS TOU NUMFWNOS EN hWi hO NUMFIOS MET' AUTWN
>>ESTIN POIHSAI NHSTEUSAI?
>>
>>The infinitive POIHSAI depends upon the initial
>>DUNASQE as a complementary
>>infinitive; the whole adverbial clause is EN hWi
>>hO NUMFIOS MET' AUTWN
>>ESTIN; finally TOUS hUIOUS TOU NUMFWNOS NHSTEUSAI
>>depends upon POIHSAI.
>>
>>"Surely you can't make ...?" MH DUNASQE POIHSAI?
>>"... the grooms fast ..." TOUS hUIOUS TOU
>>NUMFWNOS ... NHSTEUSAI
>
>Carl, I still would like to know if it is icomon to
>use EN hWi without an infinitive to indicate duration.
> You have broken the sentecne into pieces, and while I
>did not quote the whole sentence, I would have
>analyzed it the same way. The issue is that EN hWi
>goes with the verb ESTIN, which is not an infinitive.
>So can EN hWi be used to show concurrent action any
>old time, regardless of what else is in the clause it
>is part of? Thanks.
>
>Ken
>
>>"while the bridegrrom is with them" EN hWi hO
>>NUMFIOS MET' AUTWN ESTIN

Ken, the infinitive POIHSAI has absolutely NOTHING to do with the EN hWi
clause; the verb of the EN hWi clause is ESTIN. That's the reason I broke
up the whole sentence into its constituent clauses--because you're trying
to associate the infinitive POIHSAI with EN hWi, when it actually depends
upon DUNASQE in a different clause altogether.
--

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad@ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/

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