Peculiar Word Order

George Blaisdell maqhth at hotmail.com
Sat Apr 24 10:52:35 EDT 1999





>From: "Moon"

>Recently I encountered two sentences whose word order I could not 
>understand.  Lk 7:40: ECW SOI TI EIPEIN ( I have something to tell 

you]
>Heb 2:8b: NUN DE OUPW ORAMEN AUTWi TA PANTA hUPOTETAGMENA
>(We are not yet seeing  everything having been subjected to him]
>
>Logically speaking, I thought the object of ECW is TI                
>and the object of ORAMEN is TA PANTA.

It is...
                                                                    
>But the verbs  and the objects are separated by
>datives SOI and AUTWi, respectively. I wondered why they did not
>write as ECW TI EIPEIN SOI.  Similarly why not 
> NUN DE OUPW ORAMEN TA PANTA hUPOTETAGMENA AUTWi?
>
>Does  ECW SOI TI EIPEIN intend to  convey a similar thing as
> "I have something to tell YOU", where YOU is stressed?

Perhaps the key here is the principle of "enclosure" in Greek word 
order.  ECW EIPEIN encloses SOI TI, thereby emphasizing it [SOI TI].

ECW TI EIPEIN SOI would have ECW SOI enclosing TI EIPEIN, thus 
emphasizing TI EIPEIN.  [and so on...]

Likwise with AUTWi in Heb., which is enclosed by the whole sentence, 
being in the middle of it.  Carl's chiastic observations are exactly 
on point....
 
>When the sentence in question is SOI TI EIPEIN, I can understand it.
>But when it is embedded as an object of a verb, I do not understand 
>what is going on in ECW SOI TI EIPEIN.
>
>I guess I am missing something about Greek word order.

It is not fixed as in English, but has a fluidity that follows the 
thought process of its user, working outward from centers that are 
enclosed.



 
George Blaisdell 
Roslyn, WA 


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