[B-Greek] Adverb ANW

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Sep 5 09:08:29 EDT 2003


At 5:31 AM -0700 9/5/03, Mitch Larramore wrote:
>Colossians 3 and 1 is
>
>EI OUN SUNHGERQHTE TWi CRISTWi, TA ANW ZHTEITE, hOU hO
>CRISTOS ESTIN EN DEXIAi TOU QEOU KAQHMENOS
>
>Are we to understand ANW to modify ZATEITE, and TA to
>be the direct object? Near as I can tell it would mean
>'you all seek the things above!' The adverb tells
>WHERE "the things" that we are to seek are located.
>This is an example in my grammar text but it takes it
>in a completely another way; it seems to connect TA
>with ANW.

No; TA ANW is substantival with the sense, "things (that are) above." While
ANW could function as an adverb with ZHTEITE under the right conditions,
the TA could not function independently as a direct object at any phase of
ancient Greek later than Homer (in Homer TA could be a neuter plural
pronoun in the sense "them"--a demonstrative weaker than TAUTA or EKEINA or
TADE). But it is standard Greek practice to construct substantive phrases
by using an adverb with an article: hOI TOTE = "people of that time"; hH EN
THi OIKIAi = "the (feminine) person (who is) in the house."
-- 

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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