Sentences in Greek
Richard Allan Stauch
rstauch at charter.net
Thu Aug 8 15:14:54 EDT 2002
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Eric S. Weiss
> Sent: Thursday, August 08, 2002 10:12 AM
> To: Biblical Greek
> Subject: [b-greek] Re: Sentences in Greek
>
> If you are right, then it is proper and normal for N-A 26 to put a
period
> before the EN hWi clauses and treat them as the beginning of a new
> sentence. I'm torn between the rambling linking of liturgical phrases
> understanding that Carl has quite rightly (to me) noted (not unlike
some
> of the better extemporaneous "prophetic" prayers or glossolalia
> "interpretations" I've heard in some churches), and the also very
valid
> view that breaks this into sentences -- without, I don't believe,
losing
> anything major in terms of understanding, or even in terms of thinking
"in
> Greek."
> > Eric:
> > Your wrote:
> > > even though
> > > it may not be "usual" Greek to start a sentence/paragraph with EN
+ a
> > > relative pronoun?
> > A question of comparative syntax here. I get my grammars mixed up
> > sometimes. I know in Latin it's very common--even a mark of
style--to
> begin
> > what we would have to translate as a new sentence with a relative
> pronoun--a
> > relative pronoun that may indeed be the object of a preposition. I
> guess I
> > always kind of thought the same thing was true of Greek. Is it?
> > Paul
Well, let's examine that proposition, shall we?
Take the passage from Matthew 10:20-21a, for one example. Verse 20 ends
with EN hUMIN. Let's put a period before that and see if it changes the
meaning of the passage, shall we?
Text:
"... OU GAR hUMEIS ESTE hOI LALOUNTES ALLA TO PNEUMA TOU PATROS hUMWN TO
LALOUN EN hUMIN PARADWSEI DE ADELFOS ADELFON EIS QANATON ..."
Before:
"... for you are not the speakers, but the spirit of your father
speaking in you. Then brother shall deliver up brother to death ..."
After:
"... for you are not the speakers, but the spirit of your father is
speaking. In you, then, brother shall deliver up brother to death ..."
Shall we look at another example? Acts 7:47-48a (where verse 48 uses EN
CEIROPOIHTOIS):
Text:
"SOLOMWN DE OIKODOMHSEN AUTWi OIKON ALL' OUX hO hUYISTOS EN
CEIROPOIHTOIS KATOIKEI ..."
Before:
"Then Solomon built for him a house, but the highest does not in
man-made [things] dwell ..."
After:
"Then Solomon built for him a house, but not the highest. In man-made
[things] he dwells ..."
How about an EN hWi example? Mark 2:19:
Text:
"... MH DUNANTAI hOI hUIOI TOU NUMFWNOS EN hWi hO NUMFIOS MET' AUTWN
ESTIN NHSTEUEIN;"
Before:
"... The wedding guests can not fast while the groom is with them [can
they]?"
After:
"... The wedding guests can do nothing. In whom is the groom with them
fasting?"
Well, maybe you're right; it doesn't make any difference.
Richard Allan Stauch
Long Beach, CA
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