Mark 4:30 EN TINI AUTHN PARABOLHi *QWMEN*

Carl Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sun Jul 26 10:37:21 EDT 1998


On 07/26/98, "Jonathan Robie <jonathan at texcel.no>" wrote:
> Mark 4:30 KAI ELEGEN: PWS *hOMOIWSWMEN* THN BASILEIAN TOU QEOU H EN TINI
> AUTHN PARABOLHi *QWMEN*
> 
> hOMOIWSWMEN and QWMEN are aorist subjunctive plurals. I assume that the
> "we" here is the speaker (Jesus) and the audience, right? Is this a common
> usage in Greek? I have just started looking for it elsewhere in the New
> Testament...

Once again I find myself having to access the list and respond via the web 
site rather than mail, as my home domain is down. Nevertheless, it seems to 
work.

This is what's generally called a "deliberative" subjunctive; it may take a 
first-person singular form, but it quite frequently has a rhetorical force 
and does go, as in this instance, into the first-plural, assuming a sort of 
classroom (or courtroom?) setting of a discussion in which the speaker and 
his audience are participating together. The examples that come most 
readily to my mind and in Paul's rhetorical argumentation in Romans, e.g. 
Rom 6:1, TI OUN EROUMEN? EPIMENWMEN THi hAMARTIAi, hINA hH CARIS PLEONASHi? 
or Rom 6:15, TI OUN? hAMARTHSWMEN, hOTI OUK ESMEN hUPO NOMON ALLA hUPO 
CARIN?

CWC



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