[b-greek] Re: Wenham Exercise 36A-11

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Sun Nov 18 2001 - 14:50:00 EST


At 1:42 AM +0800 11/19/01, Hirokatsu Yoshihara wrote:
>Dear list members,
>
>
>Can I ask another question on an exercise problem of Wenham? In Lesson
>36 Exercise A-11, the sentence taken from Mat. 17:3 goes:
>
> KAI WFQH AUTOIS MWUSHS KAI HLEIAS SUNLALOUNTES MET'
> AUTOU.
>
>My questions are:
>
> 1) If "WFQH"(Aor., Pass., Ind., 3rd, Sg., "hORAW", "I see") can
>be translated as "appear", as in NASB ("Moses and Elijah appeared to
>them") or in NRS ("there appeared to them, Moses and Elijah"), why is it
>in the singular, not plural?
> 2) Or, are these translation for the convenience' sake and the
>subject is still Jesus?
> 3) If so, is it possible to translate it as "And he ((or) it)
>was seen to/by them that Moses and Elijah was talking with him?"

MWUSHS and HLEIAS are in fact the subjects; technically I suppose one would
say the initial subject is MWUSHS and that HLEIAS is added on: "And Moses
appeared to them--and Elijah too--conversing with him."

Technically speaking WFQH is indeed passive, but in my view here it ought
to be understood as a "permissive middle": "allowed himself to be seen" or
"made himself seen." Of course it is my axe-to-grind that the -QH- forms
are not necessarily passive but rather a morphoparadigm that is like the
older aorist middle in -SAMHN or -OMHN and that may be understood as middle
or passive or intransitive in the same fashion, although the nature of the
verb used and the context will be decisive in determining whether in a
particular instance the usage is middle or passive or intransitive.
--

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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