Matthew 21:28 and 32

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Sep 26 20:47:54 EDT 2002


At 4:23 PM -0700 9/26/02, B. D. Colt wrote:
>I'm really confused about a couple of spots in this pericope.  I
>don't have any trouble with the words, but I can't get the sense of
>the grammar.  I'll appreciate any help you can give me.
>
>TI DE hUMIN DOKEI;  (Mat 21:28)
>
>Is this some sort of idiom, or what?  I am prepared to accept that
>the translation as "What do you think?" is correct, but I'd like to
>be able to get a sense of that meaning from the combination of words
>and grammar, and I can't.

This is indeed a common idiom: DOKEI used impersonally (or with a
non-personal subject) with a dative of reference; it is very much like
Latin QUID VOBIS PLACET ("What is your pleasure, what pleases you?") or
French Est'ce qu'il vous plaît? ("Does it please you? = "Are you
satisfied?") So TI hUMIN DOKEI = "What seems good/right to you?" = "What do
you think?"

>hUMEIS DE IDONTES OUDE METEMELHQHTE
>hUSTERON TOU PISTEUSAI AUTWi. (Mat 21:32)
>
>Can someone clarify this construction for me?  I'm OK through
>hUSTERON, but TOU PISTEUSAI AUTWi throws me.

The articular infinitive in the genitive is not infrequently used to
express purpose. In all likelihood that genitive articular infinitive
originally depended upon a hENEKA, "for the sake of ..." which more often
than not followed rather than preceded what it governed. If that was the
case, usage of the hENEKA became obsolete and the genitive articular
infinitive came to be used by itself to express purpose; thus: TOU
PISTEUSAI AUTWi = hINA PISTEUSHTE AUTWi: "in order to believe him."
-- 

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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