Hermas 3.9.12.2 (Book 3, 9th Similitude, Chapter 12, Verse 2

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Scott Lawson
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Joined: June 9th, 2011, 6:36 pm

Hermas 3.9.12.2 (Book 3, 9th Similitude, Chapter 12, Verse 2

Post by Scott Lawson »

Hermas 3.9.12.2 (Book 3, 9th Similitude, Chapter 12, Verse 2):

"...ὁ μὲν υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ πάσης τῆς κτίσεως αὐτοῦ προγενέστερός ἐστιν, ὥστε σύμβουλον αὐτὸν γενέσθαι τῷ πατρὶ τῆς κτίσεως αὐτοῦ· διὰ τοῦτο καὶ παλαιὰ ἡ πέτρα..."

It seems to me that γενέσθαι is connected to αὐτὸν as an adverbial accusative. "The word in the accusative answers the question, “to what does the verb relate?” A special use of the adverbial accusative is to express the subject of an infinitive." Compare Acts 1:3 μετὰ τὸ παθεῖν αὐτον. See It’s Still Greek to Me by David Alan Black pg 55. See also BDAG for how ὥστε works with the infinitive to introduce a dependent clause. Compare Matt.8:24 ὥστε τὸ πλοῖον καλύπτεσθαι.

I thought infinitives cannot be main verbs but it seems there are instances...I would feel better if the text had εγένετο instead of γενέσθαι.

I found two different sources for the text online and both have γενέσθαι.

I read through Robertson's comments on infinitives and found it tough reading. Quite a brain teaser! Very fun but I could really use some help. HELP!
Scott Lawson
Stephen Hughes
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Joined: February 26th, 2013, 7:12 am

Re: Hermas 3.9.12.2 (Book 3, 9th Similitude, Chapter 12, Ver

Post by Stephen Hughes »

  • 1) Result clause - ὥστε + (accusative &) infinitive
    2) γίνεσθαι takes an adjective (when taking on an attribute), or another noun (wehn becoming something else).
But you probably already knew those basic things.

Why would an adverbial accusative be masculine?
Γελᾷ δ' ὁ μωρός, κἄν τι μὴ γέλοιον ᾖ
(Menander, Γνῶμαι μονόστιχοι 108)
David Lim
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Joined: June 6th, 2011, 6:55 am

Re: Hermas 3.9.12.2 (Book 3, 9th Similitude, Chapter 12, Ver

Post by David Lim »

Scott Lawson wrote:Hermas 3.9.12.2 (Book 3, 9th Similitude, Chapter 12, Verse 2):

"...ὁ μὲν υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ πάσης τῆς κτίσεως αὐτοῦ προγενέστερός ἐστιν, ὥστε σύμβουλον αὐτὸν γενέσθαι τῷ πατρὶ τῆς κτίσεως αὐτοῦ· διὰ τοῦτο καὶ παλαιὰ ἡ πέτρα..."

It seems to me that γενέσθαι is connected to αὐτὸν as an adverbial accusative. "The word in the accusative answers the question, “to what does the verb relate?” A special use of the adverbial accusative is to express the subject of an infinitive." Compare Acts 1:3 μετὰ τὸ παθεῖν αὐτον. See It’s Still Greek to Me by David Alan Black pg 55. See also BDAG for how ὥστε works with the infinitive to introduce a dependent clause. Compare Matt.8:24 ὥστε τὸ πλοῖον καλύπτεσθαι.
"συμβουλον αυτον γενεσθαι" is of a certain kind of construction that is the same as a normal sentence except that the main verb is in the infinitive and its subject is in the accusative. Here "αυτον" is the subject of "γενεσθαι" and "συμβουλον" is the so-called 'predicate nominative' that is declined to match the subject. "μετα το παθειν αυτον" in Acts 1:3 is also of that form. (See 834 and 836 at http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/project/f ... on-57.html)
Scott Lawson wrote:I thought infinitives cannot be main verbs but it seems there are instances...I would feel better if the text had εγένετο instead of γενέσθαι.
If it had been "εγενετο", then it should have been "συμβουλος" and "αυτος" (or dropped). In any case, "ωστε" (when denoting consequence) prefers the accusative plus infinitive, at least in the NT.
δαυιδ λιμ
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