[B-Greek] TOUS PEPISTEUKOTAS = EK TOU PATROS TOU DIABOLOU?
Iver Larsen
iver_larsen at sil.org
Tue Mar 18 09:36:55 EST 2003
>
> Thanks for the explanation.
> What would/could the evangelist have written in verse 33 instead
> of APEKRIQHSAN if he wanted to indicate that it was the many who
> believed who answered him?
> I am asking this so that I may recognize this construction when I
> see it in another passage.
> Bert de Haan
He probably would have used the same grammatical construction. The trick is
that the grammar is ambiguous. It is the context that tells the reader who
is speaking, but it also helps to realize that main participants in a Greek
discourse are - unlike English - often referred to simply by pronouns or
pronominal suffixes.
One of the important disciplines within discourse studies is the study of
"Introduction and tracking of participants". As an exercise try to look at
Mark 9:14-29 and check how the Greek text refers to the many different
people who take part in the story. Then compare a literal English version
with an idiomatic version like Good News Bible, Contemporary English Version
or New Living Translation. You will find that the literal version is very
confusing in English, and that the idiomatic versions have changed many
pronouns into proper names - for very good reasons.
Iver Larsen
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