Cleon Rogers versus Max Zerwick

Eric S. Weiss eweiss at gte.net
Fri Jul 26 09:14:02 EDT 2002


I wrote:

> [Zerwick's comments on the grammatical meaning of hINA + the subjunctive here is
> useful. If a person has primarily been taught (as I was in both 1st and 2nd-year
> Greek) that the subjunctive mood means the mood of possibility,

but meant to add: 

and that hINA + Subjunctive usually means purpose or result,

> he will not recognize
> that here it's merely functioning as an infinitive would function. As H.P.V. Nunn
> points out in his A SHORT SYNTAX OF NEW TESTAMENT GREEK (p. 103, section 180):
> 
> The Use of Clauses Introduced By hINA And Other Final Particles As Substitutes For The
> Infinitive
> 180. As has been already stated a clause introduced by hINA or hOPWS is frequently
> found in New Testament Greek where an Infinitive might have been expected, and where
> an Infinitive would have been used in Classical Greek. Even in New Testament Greek an
> Infinitive can be used with exactly the same force as the hINA clause in nearly every
> case. At the time the New Testament was being written, clauses introduced by hINA were
> gradually taking the place of the Infinitive in familiar speech, and in modern Greek
> the Infinitive has entirely disappeared and NA with a Subjunctive has taken its place.



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