Phil. 1:23

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Mon Jun 24 07:30:20 EDT 2002


At 1:16 PM -0700 6/23/02, c stirling bartholomew wrote:
>Tony,
>
>on 6/23/02 11:04 AM, tmcos at canada.com wrote:
>
>> THN EPIQUMIAN EXWN EIS TO ANALUSAI KAI SUN XRISTWi
>> EINAI, POLLW MALLOV KREISSON.
>>
>> Is there a participle phrase in this sentence?
>
>THN EPIQUMIAN EXWN looks like the top level of a participle constituent
>where the following two infinitives TO ANALUSAI KAI SUN XRISTWi EINAI define
>the content of EPIQUMIAN, answering the question, What did Paul desire?
>
>
>> I am
>> trying to make sense of TO ANALUSAI KAI SUN XRISTWi
>> EINAI. Does this construct imply that with Paul's
>> departing, breaking camp, or weighing anchor (as
>> ANALUSAI can be translated)he would be immediately
>> "with" (SUN) "Christ" (XRISTWi)? I am gathering this
>> from the context which seems to indicate that Paul is
>> anticipating his own death.
>
>Don't think KAI can be used to support any conjecture about the timing of
>this. You might find this notion " immediately" somewhere else in the text
>but it isn't a semantic feature of  TO ANALUSAI KAI SUN XRISTWi EINAI.

I've looked at both of Clay's responses to this question and, with all due
respect, it seems to me that the problem here is not with THN EPIQUMIAN
ECWN or with TO ANALUSAI KAI SUN CRISTWi EINAI, but rather with the EIS
which takes that articular-infinitive phrase as its object. I think that
EIS + articular infinitive here is different from its more common function
of indicating purpose or result. Here I think it complements what is
perceived as an intransitive verb. My surmise is that EPIQUMEW would take a
direct complementary infinitive,
but that EPIQUMIAN ECW is felt to be an intransitive verb that needs to be
completed by an adverbial phrase, thus: "I want to take leave and be with
Christ" vs. "I have a desire for taking leaving and being with Christ."
-- 

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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