[b-greek] Re: Eph. 5:5

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Wed Apr 17 2002 - 08:38:11 EDT


At 8:08 AM -0400 4/17/02, Manolis Nikolaou wrote:
>> At 10:53 AM +0000 4/17/02, Jack Stewart wrote:
>> >Dear All,
>> >
>> >We read in Eph. 5:5:
>> >
>> >TOUTO GAR ISTE GINWSKONTES -
>> >
>> >I am unfamiliar with this construction - having a perfect imperative
>> >followed by a present participle. I suppose literally it is something like
>> >"Know this knowing...etc." i.e.: meaning "Certainly know this...etc. Is
>> >this right? Does this construction have a particular grammatical
>> >designation?
>>
>> While ISTE could be an imperative, it could just as well be (and I think it
>> is) an indicative. That ISTE is perfect tense is not really problematic,
>> because this verb (actually the same as EIDON, aorist) has the sense "know"
>> only in the perfect (just as hESTHKA has the sense "be standing" only in
>> the perfect).
>>
>> The grammatical construction here is the use of the participle in
>> conjunction with verbs of perception (OIDA is indeed a verb of perception
>> as the perfect of EIDON) for indirect discourse, whereas indirect discourse
>> more normally takes an infinitive when the verb is of speaking.
>>
>> So the phrase means: "For you know that you know this ..." or, if one does
>> read ISTE as imperative rather than indicative, "For know (you/ye) that you
>> know this ..."

>Semantically speaking: don't you think that the Byzantine version
>TOUTO GAR *ESTE* GINWSKONTES (instead of *ISTE* GINWSKONTES) seems to make
>more sense in this case?

Not really, and evidently the committee producing the critical text didn't
even deem it worth noting in the apparatus. One might as well write
GINWSKETE: one could interpret it too as either imperative or indicative!
And I don't think there's really anything exceptionable about ISTE
GINWSKONTES.
--

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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