Does Mark 8:7 use an imperative infinitive' ?
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sat May 8 14:15:29 EDT 1999
At 2:09 PM -0400 5/8/99, Jay Adkins wrote:
>Dear B-Greekers,
>
>While I can find no translation to support of use of an imperative
>infinitive' in Mark 8:7, it seems to fit the context well. It appears to
>be
>not without support from the function of the infinitive itself.
>
>The imperative infinitive' is "especially frequent in Homer", and while it
>"is not of very frequent occurrence" in the NT, "Moulton thinks that its
>rarity in the New Testament is a "matter for surprise"(M. 180)." {Dana &
>Mantey, page 216} "An infinitive may be used in a predicate structure,
>serving the function of a finite verb such as an imperative (commanding
>use). This is much more frequent in Greek outside of the NT...." {Porter,
>page 201}
>
>Have I missed something about the use of the infinitive as an imperative in
>translating:
>
>Mark 8:7 "KAI EICON ICQUDIA, KAI EULOGHSAS AUTA EIPEN KAI TAUTA
>PARATIQENIA"
>
>As follows;
>
>8:7 They also had a few small fish, having blessed them, He said, "Now
>serve these."
The only problem I see is in transcription: the infinitive is PARATIQENAI
(AI, not IA).
Here EIPEN must be understood to have the sense EKELEUSEN, "he bade/ordered
(them) to serve these also." In English we can use "tell" this way, but
Greek does not that commonly use LEGW in the sense of "order" with an
infinitive.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list