[B-Greek] 68 optatives in the New Testament
Joseph Weaks
j.weaks at tcu.edu
Tue Feb 24 15:25:14 EST 2004
Also worth noting: Of the 68 optatives found in these 63 verses, 12 of
these are EIH which is present active optative, 3rd sing of EIMI (found
exclusively in Luke and Acts with the exception of once in John which I
think is a mistake at some level. cf. textual variants), and 16 are
GENOITO, the aorist middle optative, 3rd sing of GINOMAI. This is the
rhetorical diatribe "God forbid" or "Let it not be so" Paul uses 10
times in Romans and 3 times in Galatians and once in 1Cor. The word is
only used by Paul and Luke. Paul never uses it without MH. Luke uses it
once in Luke with MH, and once each in Luke and Acts without it.
Of the remaining optatives, at least half of them are part of a "May
the Lord do such and such" type construction, of mostly 1 usage per
word.
The unusually high occurrence of these two primary optatives
illustrates what we see time and time again, that extremely common
phrases and words are the most resistant to adopting newer intentional
efforts in language making. Hence, in learning grammar and vocab we
come to realize that the "irregular" words are the most common.
Cheers,
Joe Weaks
On Feb 24, 2004, at 1:40 PM, Dony K. Donev wrote:
> Elizabeth,
> There are 68 optavtives in the New Testament in the following verses:
>
> Mark 1:11
> Luke 1:29
> Luke 1:38
> Luke 1:62
> Luke 3:15
> Luke 6:11
> Luke 8:9
> Luke 9:46
> Luke 15:26
> Luke 16:36
> Luke 20:16
> Luke 22:23
> John 13:24
> Acts 5:24
> Acts 8:20
> Acts 8:31
> Acts 10:17
> Acts 17:11
> Acts 17:18
> Acts 17:27
> Acts 17:27
> Acts 20:16
> Acts 21:33
> Acts 24:19
> Acts 25:16
> Acts 25:16
> Acts 25:20
> Acts 26:29
> Acts 27:12
> Acts 27:39
> Romans 3:4
> Romans 3:6
> Romans 3:31
> Romans 6:2
> Romans 6:15
> Romans 7:7
> Romans 7:13
> Romans 9:14:
> Romans 11:1
> Romans 11:11
> Romans 15:5
> Romans 15:13
> 1 Corinthians 6:15
> 1 Corinthians 14:10
> 1 Corinthians 15:37
> Galatians 2:17
> Galatians 3:21
> Galatians 6:14
> 1 Thessalonians 3:11
> 1 Thessalonians 3:12
> 1 Thessalonians 3:12
> 1 Thessalonians 5:23
> 1 Thessalonians 5:23
> 2 Thessalonians 2:17
> 2 Thessalonians 2:17
> 2 Thessalonians 3:5
> 2 Thessalonians 3:16
> 2 Timothy 1:16
> 2 Timothy 1:18
> 2 Timothy 4:16
> Philemon 1:20
> Hebrews 13:21
> 1 Peter 1:2
> 1 Peter 3:14
> 1 Peter 3:17
> 2 Peter 1:2
> Jude 1:2
> Jude 1:9
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Dony K Donev
> http://cupandcross.com
>
> in respond to:
>> I´m a year 1 student just learning the optative. Apparently its use
>> is very
> rare in the NT. Is there anywhere I can find a list of exactly when it
> occurs there? Greetings. Elizabeth Jones, Manchester UK
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