[B-Greek] Rev 2:25

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Jan 13 08:56:14 EST 2004


At 5:17 AM -0800 1/13/04, mrt wrote:
>At 5:46 PM -0800 1/12/04, Mitch Larramore wrote:
>>PLHN hO ECETE KRATHSATE ACRIS hOU AN hHXW
>
>Best I can figure, ACRIS hOU means "until which." Then you add AN to get an
>indefinite idea. Then, I guess you have to supply the word "time." All of
>which then means "until which [time] I may come." I added "may" of "may
>come" to account for the AN. Am I close here?
>________
>
>Carl C. responded:
>>hHXW is aorist subjunctive as required by the AN; the sense of ACRIS hOU is
>"pending such time as ..."; the force of the aorist subjunctive is "I
>(shall) have arrived"--"But hold on to what you have pending the time at
>which I shall have come."
>_______
>
>Greetings comrades,
>I have always understood ACRIS hOU AN or ACRIS hOU as an abbreviated form of
>ACRIS TOU CPONOU hWi (see BDAG 1b alfa or Zerwick's grammar §17) and the
>form of the condensed version similar to the abbrev. MECRIS hOU, which I
>also take to mean MECRI TOU CRONOU hWi (re. MECRIS hOU Est. 5:1; Mk. 13:30;
>Gal. 4:19; Judith 5:10; Tobit 11:1; Theod. Grk. of Daniel 11:36).
>
>ACRI[S] I regard as improper preposition or temporal adverb.  So for
>instance in Act 7:17 we are told that Israel increased and grew numerous in
>size; v.18 ACRI hOU *until the time when* ANASTH BASILEUS hETEROS EP'
>AIGUPTON hOS OUK HiDEI TON IWSHF  (until there arose another king over Egypt
>who knew nothing about Joseph) thus indicating a temporal clause.
>
>Now I too see the subjunctive most often used after AN, the particle of
>contingency, indicating that the verbal action is dependent on some
>situation or condition.  So yes, in most instances there is with it the
>aspect of possibility, hence the need for the subjunctive. But on the other
>hand it is not necessary that a subjunctive proceed AN.  In fact in our
>verse the verb after AN is hHXW which may be future active indicative,
>though I do think it's subjunctive as well (note that some grammarians are
>unsure here).

But there is no future subjunctive; if it's subjunctive it must be aorist,
and aorist subjunctive is quite common in the so-called "future more vivid"
conditional constructions (same as where Latin requires a future perfect).

 Now sometimes an optative follows AN, but that mood
>(possibility) is still similar to the mood of probability ie. subjunctive
>(for opt. following AN see Gen 23:15; Luk 1:62; Act 5:24, 8:31, 17:18)
>
>Places where we do see AN employed without a subjunctive or optative may be
>in Conditional sentences (if... then) .  Here AN is used with the apodosis
>(then clause) e.g. Gen 43:10; Num 22:29; 4 Macc 6:32; Oba 1:5; Matt 24:22; 1
>Cor 11:31; Heb 4:8 and there are others.  In fact the apodosis usually does
>have the particle AN.  For fun here's a conditional sentence with a imperf.
>indicative vb.  EI MEN OUN HN EPI GHS, OUD' AN HN hIEREUS - Now if he were
>on earth, {then} he would not be a priest (Heb 8:4)
>
>For instances other than Conditional sentences where we do see an Indicative
>following AN are Gen 6:4; 30:42; Act 2:45, 4:35; 1 Cor 12:2.  I suppose
>there are more.  And I think BDB §367 also gives more examples and speaks
>about this (cf. also BDAG I.a. AN)
>
>Michael Tarver
>Oregon, USA
><'\\><  laus Deo
>
>---
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-- 

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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