[B-Greek] Acts 17,16
Iver Larsen
iver_larsen at sil.org
Sat Apr 3 07:15:49 EST 2004
>
> EN DE TAIS AQHNAIS EKDECOMENOU AUTOUS TOU PAULOU,
> PARWXUNETO TO PNEUMA AUTOU EN AUTWi QEWROUNTOS
> KATEIDWLON OUSAN THN POLIN
>
> Wallace lists OUSAN as "indirect discourse" per
> Parsons/Culy (I don't have the source they have
> sited). Can someone show me how this participle could
> be considered "indirect discourse"? (Who was involved
> in the "direct" discourse and what was imagined to
> have been said?)
>
> =====
> Eddie Mishoe
> Pastor
I have not read Wallace and I approach the grammar of Greek form a general
descriptive linguistics background rather than traditional Greek grammar, so
my comments my be at variance with tradition.
Having said that, I agree with you and Steven that "indirect discourse" is
not a helpful term to use here. Normally, indirect discourse is a clausal
object of a verb of saying or thinking, not "seeing" as here.
Would you say that "he saw a man coming down the street" is an example of
indirect discourse?
What about "he saw that a man was coming down the street"? Is that indirect
discourse?
In Acts 17,16 Paul is "very upset in his spirit (from) observing the city
being idolatrous (full of idols)"
REB: "he was outraged to see the city so full of idols."
RSV: "as he saw that the city was full of idols."
It is possible in Greek (as in English) to use a full subordinate clause as
the object for these verbs, introduced with hOTI or hINA (that), but it is
more common in Greek just have a noun as object which may then be further
qualified by a participial phrase/clause.
Some verbs take an infinitive with accusative, but QEWREW is not one of
them.
Iver Larsen
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