1Cor 7:5

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sun Apr 30 17:39:22 EDT 2000


At 5:25 PM -0400 4/30/00, Dmitriy Reznik wrote:
>Dear friends,
>
>Could you please help me to understand the syntax of EI MHTI AN of 1Cor
>7:5? Though I get the idea what it says about, still I don't know the
>role of each of the parts of this phrase. For example, if EI MH means
>"unless", what is the role of TI and AN?

Text: MH APOSTEREITE ALLHLOUS, EI MHTI AN EK SUMFWNOU PROS KAIRON, ...

As EI MH regularly does mean "unless" or "if not," I think that what we
have here is simply the the indefinite TI attached as an enclitic to the MH
limiting the force of the "except" or "unless": "except to some extent
..."; AN must govern an elliptical APOSTERHTE ALLHLOUS carried forward from
the imperative clause which precedes, so that it is equivalent to EAN MH TI
APOSTERHTE ALLHLOUS--an AN is required with the subjunctive in this
conditional construction which is implicit, even if it is not fully
expressed.

-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/



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