The usage of TOU + Infinitive in Gal 3:10

Steven Craig Miller scmiller at plantnet.com
Sun Dec 3 10:07:15 EST 2000


To: Carl W. Conrad,

<< ... the articular infinitive is in the aorist, which does suggest to me 
"so as to get them performed" rather than "so as to perform them 
continually/repeatedly." >>

With all due respect (and there are no words which will do justice to my 
heartfelt thanks for your participation on this list and your willing to 
address these issues), I wonder if perhaps you might be reading a little 
too much into the aorist here? My own sense of this passage (for what it 
might be worth) is that TOU POIHSAI AUTA simply says the same thing as 
EMMENEI etc. In other words, to "abide by all things written in the book of 
the law" is simply the same thing as to "do them." While it is possible to 
say that the latter is the result of the former, it is also possible to say 
that the former is the result of the latter. That is the reason why I favor 
calling this epexegetic rather than result, although I would be willing to 
accept "result" as a grammatical category as long as one is willing to see 
it overlapping with the epexegetic sense. To take it as a strict result 
seems to me to be reading too much into this passage. For this reason, I 
personally would have problems with taking this passage to mean: "so as to 
get them performed," it seems to force a cause and result relationship on 
this passage.

On the other hand, I will admit that I haven't given strictly a grammatical 
reason for my assertion, so much as my "common sense" understanding of this 
passage. (And we all know what sense is "common" to one person might not be 
"common" to another.)

-Steven Craig Miller


Alton, Illinois (USA)
scmiller at plantnet.com





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