Why an instantaneous imperfect in Mark 8:24?

George Blaisdell maqhth at hotmail.com
Mon Jun 28 12:00:51 EDT 1999





>From: "Moon-Ryul Jung"

KAI ANABLEYAS ELEGEN, BLEPW TOUS ANQRWPOUS hOTI hWS DENDRA hORW 
PERIPATOUNTAS.

>I like "hOTI = the fact being that..."  very much.  Given S1, hOTI S2,
>we have "S1, the fact being that S2". In this case, S2 basically explains
>the statement of S1. Depending on the context, S2 states a cause for S1,
>though the causal link may not be strong in many cases.
>
>Let me ask some clarifying questions:
>1) Is "QUOD = the fact being that ..." a well-established fact?
>2) If "hOTI = the fact being that  ..." can be defened,  I think we have
>a very nice result. We have a unified notion of hOTI; we do not have to
>worry about whether the given hOTI clause is causal or not. We simply need
>to
>respect the ambiguity of "The fact being that ...". Sometimes, it
>qualifies
>the preceding statement as in Mark 8:24. Sometimes, it provides some weak
>causal connection, too weak to be rendered as "because".  Sometimes, "the
>fact being that ...." can be considered to state  a strong causal
>connection.
>In sum, is it reasonable to always consider hOTI to be "the fact being that
>...."
>without worrying about whether it states a cause or not?
>3) If so, the meaning of hOTI seems very close to that of GAR. Given S1.
>GAR S2, S2 states some explanation for S1.  For example, consider:
>
>KAI ANABLEYAS ELEGEN, BLEPW TOUS ANQRWPOUS GAR hWS DENDRA hORW
>PERIPATOUNTAS.
>
>I see men; I perceive them walking like trees.
>
>Is GAR interchangeable with hOTI in many cases?

I have been out of this one, but would like to add a small observation that 
occurred to me along the lines of this compprehensional rendition of hOTI as 
"the fact being that..."

As a hO TI ~ 'the what' ~ hOTI can be approached as an answer to an implied 
question 'TI' [so what? etc] Thus hOTI becomes in English "The what 
[being]..."

So that in this example, "I am seeing the men", which is no big deal, hOTI ~ 
the what (of me seeing them] being... ~ as trees hORW walking!
This is much along the lines of "the fact being that...", but with the added 
idea of "The 'so what? [fact]' being that..."



George Blaisdell
Roslyn, WA


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