Mark 6:22

Steven Lo Vullo doulos at merr.com
Mon Dec 31 21:57:11 EST 2001


On Monday, December 31, 2001, at 06:58  PM, Richard Ghilardi wrote:

>> MK 6:22 -- EISELQOUSHS THS QUGATROS AUTHS [AUTOU] hHRWiDIADOS KAI
>> ORCHSAMENHS HRESEN TWi hHRWiDHi...

> I used that phrase ( difficile per difficilius ) because it seemed to me
> unlikely that AUTHS would follow THS QUGATROS rather than precede THS
> hHRWiDIADOS.
>
> [Ghilardi]
>
> In fact, it does BOTH. AUTHS both follows THS QUGATROS and precedes THS
> hHRWiDIADOS. Where better could Mark have placed this pronoun if he had
> wanted to qualify the entire phrase?

Carl's comment above clearly was not meant to convey that AUTHS doesn't 
follow THS QUGATROS positionally in the clause, which would be patently 
false. Rather, I think he meant to convey that, since in the 
overwhelming majority of instances of the intensive pronoun it 
positionally PRECEDES the word it qualifies, it is much more probable 
that in this instance it precedes THS hHRWiDIADOS as an intensive 
pronoun rather than follows THS QUGATROS as an intensive pronoun. In 
light of the sheer statistical evidence, I think Carl is right in 
thinking that it complicates the issue to propose something much more 
improbable, if not downright forced, when a simple answer is at hand 
that makes perfect grammatical sense.

Also, you say, "Where better could Mark have placed this pronoun if he 
had
wanted to qualify the entire phrase?" This really is no argument, since 
it depends on something we cannot know, i.e., what someone COULD have 
done IF he had wanted to express something. We can't start with what was 
in someone's head and work our way to the grammar; rather we must start 
with the grammar and work our way to what was in someone's head.

> Are you saying that Greek is incapable of using an intensive pronoun 
> like
> AUTHS to qualify an entire phrase consisting of a head noun and a 
> genitve
> adjunct?

If a whole phrase or clause should be substantivized by an article, then 
yes, I could see (under certain conditions) a whole phrase or even a 
clause being qualified by an intensive pronoun (though in such a case 
the article and pronoun would be neuter, and that which is 
substantivized something like a proverbial saying or OT quotation). But, 
taking away AUTHS, I fail to see how THS QUGATROS (THS) hHRWiDIADOS can 
be construed as a substantival unit which can be qualified by an 
intensive pronoun. I, along with Carl, do not get it.
--------------------

Steven Lo Vullo
Madison, WI




More information about the B-Greek mailing list