[B-Greek] Accusative in John 2:11

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Aug 7 13:46:56 EDT 2003


At 10:39 AM -0500 8/7/03, Rob Matlack wrote:
>Carl and others, thanks for your answers.
>I am still not clear on the question of a simple appositive probably
>because I was not
>clear in my original question. If there was a text (and there isn't that I
>can find)
>that said TOUTON EKALESEN TON MAQHTHN, I can see how this could be an
>object-compliment "he called this one to be a disciple". However, could
>it, with or
>without TON ever be a simple accusative "he called this one, who by the
>way is a
>disciple". In other words, apart from context, is there a way to
>distinguish the
>difference between a potential object-compliment construction and a
>potential object
>with a simple appositive.

In your formulation above TOUTON EKALESEN TON MAQHTHN, the sense would have
to be "he called this disciple"--the reason being that the article is
appended to MAQHTHN (it doesn't matter at all that the verb EKALESEN
separates TOUTON from TON MAQHTHN--nor that EPOIHSE separates TAUTHN from
THN ARCHN in the text originally in question). The entire phrase TOUTON TON
MAQHTHN would be the direct object of EKALESEN. On the other hand, if one
wanted MAQHTHN to be an object complement, one would not use the article
but would write TOUTON EKALESEN MAQHTHN: "he called this one (to be/as) a
disciple."

>Carl, in studying your answer it occurs to me that perhaps the problem is
>that I am
>allowing the demonstrative to function as a pronoun or stand alone which
>would be
>required for a simple appositive construction.

You're right, I believe--and, as I've tried to indicate above, I think that
would be legitimate but for the article with the noun. It's possible that
the fact that TAUTHN was separated from THN ARCHN was also a factor in your
taking TAUTHN to be an independent pronoun.
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/



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