[B-Greek] ENQUMHMA in Ezek. 23:37

Albert Pietersma albert.pietersma at sympatico.ca
Mon Nov 24 14:51:48 EST 2003


Dear Jeff,
Two further notes: (1) On reflection I might better have called the use 
of EMOICWNTO middle, since that pulls 36:23 (which you cited) into 
view: EMOICWNTO TAS GUNAIKAS.
As you know the Greek medio-passive form can range in function from 
intransitive to passive (for a delineation you may consult my website 
and look for Handout #10). What we have in 23:27 (et al.) is the Direct 
Reflexive use: X "adulterizes" himself; in 36:23 we have Mediated 
Action: X  gets the women to commit adultery. Such mediated action, 
however, requires an animate object---which is NOT what we have in  
36:23. Hence the adverbial. (2) As for the number of the verb --- in 
the LXX, a neuter plural subject often takes a plural verb because the 
Hebrew verb happens to be plural. Since in 36:23 the Hebrew verb is 
plural, the Greek neuter plural would likely take a plural verb even if 
it were subject.
Al

On Monday, November 24, 2003, at 01:29 PM, Jeff Smelser wrote:

> Thanks to both Albert and Ken for the very, very helpful comments!
>
> As I wrote to Albert offlist, I'm not much of a Hebrew student, but if 
> I had
> at least looked at the English text I guess I should have been able to 
> see
> that regardless of what meaning the translator had in mind, AUTOIS was 
> just
> an effort to represent the Hebrew pronoun.
>
> Albert, when I wrote offlist, I wasn't yet fully convinced that here
> EMOICWNTO is used intransitively and TA ENQUMHMATA is used 
> adverbially. I'm
> warming to the idea, maybe reconciled to it.
>
> Ken, your comments were right in line with Albert's. There was one 
> thing you
> said, however, that started me wondering:
>
>> Yes, TA ENQUMHMATA is accusative (if it were
>> nominative, the verb should be singular)
>
> I agree that ENQUMHMATA is accusative here, but I wouldn't have 
> supposed the
> verb would ~necessarily~ have been singular if ENQUMHMATA were 
> nominative.
> In general, in Hellenistic, neuter plurals may take a singular verb, 
> but do
> not necessarily do so. Your comment made me wonder if in the LXX there 
> is a
> tendency to follow the stricter Attic usage (singular verb with neuter
> plural), but I see Robertson (p. 404) says the LXX shows the same 
> liberty we
> see in the N.T.
>
> Jeff Smelser
> www.ntgreek.net
> www.centrevillechurchofchrist.org
>
>
—
Albert Pietersma
Professor of Septuagint and Hellenistic Greek
Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations
University of Toronto
Home: 21 Cross Street,
Weston ON Canada M9N 2B8
Email: albert.pietersma at sympatico.ca
Homepage: http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~pietersm




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