[B-Greek] SOI in Mark 2:18
Iver Larsen
iver_larsen at sil.org
Mon Feb 9 23:23:05 EST 2004
>
> It is always with fear and trepidation that I question Carl
> Conrad, but in A.T. Robertson, p. 541, there is the listing of
> what is called the "dative of possession." He gives several egs.
> that must be dative and they indicate the relationship of
> antecedent to a noun that is generally but not purely possession.
> Two interesting egs. are Acts 8:21 OUK ESTIN SOI MERIS, lit.
> "there is no part for you" or "you have no part in this matter."
> I would quickly note that there is no article here to put SOI in
> an attributive relationship with MERIS and it could not agree
> with it like an adjective would. I must be the pronoun but it
> does tell something about the noun.
>
> Another interesting eg. is Matt. 16:22. OU MH ESTAI SOI TOUTO,
> lit. "This will never be your thing." of "This will never happen
> to you." Again the article is not there but is that decissive
> since there are many places in the NT where the dative with and
> without a preposision are between the article and the noun
> serving to modify the noun.
>
> This is the reason that Jim Brooks and I chose this very example
> (hO AUTOS TUPOS) as an example of Robertson's possessive dative,
> which seems in some of his examples to do a little more than show
> possession.
>
> Carlton Winbery
> Louisiana College
Would not the occurrence of ESTIN or ESTAI be significant? In several
languages "X has Y" is always or at least can be expressed by "Y is to-X".
In the Friberg grammar tags to the NT, there are three cases where SOI has
been ambiguously tagged as either the dative singular of SU or the plural
nominative of SOS. The three are: Mark 2:18, John 17:6 and 17:9. The two in
John both occur with a form of EIMI, and it is difficult from the grammar
alone to make a decision between "they are yours" and "they belong to you"
for SOI EISIN, although I would opt for SOS, partly because of the parallel
SA ESTIN in the next sentence. It seems to me that the Mark 2:18 definitely
has to be a form of SOS. Had it come from SU, the construction ought to have
been hOI DE SOU MAQHTAI.
Iver Larsen
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