Codex Bezae (D05) Reading #9

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Aug 22 21:01:34 EDT 2002


>9 - Lk 1:27 NA27/USB4: EMNHSTEUMENHN ANDRI hWi ONOMA IWSHF; D05:
>MEMNHSMENHN instead of EMNHSTEUMENHN
>Selon D05 Marie était simplement "promise en mariage" ; selon les autres
>manuscrits qui reprennent le terme du Dt, elle était "officiellement
>fiancée" . Quelles conséquences dégager du choix de l'un ou de l'autre
>terme? Autre question: pourquoi le parfait? ["According to D05 Mary was
>simply 'promised in marriage'; according to the other MSS which echo the
>term from Deuteronomy, she was 'officially engaged.' What follows from the
>choice of the one over the other term? Another question: Why the perfect
>tense?"]

I don't understand how MEMNHSMENHN can be understood as "promise en
mariage" or "promised in marriage." This perfect MP participle can only be
derived from MIMNHSKOMAI which is regularly middle in later Greek and ought
to be understood as middle in this form: "remembering" (or "having
remembered"). While the form doesn't normally have that -S- in the stem,
the -S- is often enough added to vowel-stems before non-thematic endings.
This really looks to me like an error for EMNHSTEUMENHN.
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months:: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad at ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/



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