[B-Greek] Re: Matt 15:37: a strange structure?
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Mon Jun 28 23:11:02 EDT 2004
At 8:23 AM +0900 6/29/04, moon at mail.sogang.ac.kr wrote:
>[MOON]:
>> >
>> >I have looked at the sentence of Matt 15:37b, and am puzzled about it.
>> >
>> >TO PERISSEUON TWN KLASMATWN HRAN hHPTA SPURIDAS PLHREIS.
>> >the left-over of pieces took seven baskets full
>> >
>> >PLHREIS is accusative plural, and seems to describe TO PERISSEUON,
>>which is
>> >also accusative, though the latter is singular. hHPTA SPURIDAS seems to
>> >construe with PLHREIS, and complement it. So, I would think that hHPTA
>> >SPURIDAS
>> >is "accusative of respect", and would be translated as "in seven baskets".
>>
>
>[CARL]:
>
>> No, I think that we have an instance of a plural concrete expression (hEPTA
>> SPURIDAS PLHREIS) functioning in apposition to a singular abstract
>> expression (TO PERISSEUON TWN KLASMATWN) functioning as direct object of
>> the verb HRAN.
>>
>
>[Moon]: I had a reason why I hesitated to take hEPTA SPURIDAS PLHREIS as
>an apposition
>to TO PERISSEUON TWN KLASMATWN. It does not have the articile in the
>front. So,
>I thought it is a predicate expression rather than a noun phrase referring
>to a thing.
>
>In an English sentence, "We received our son dead", "dead" is not an
>apposition to "our son", but a predicate expression describing "our son".
>Isn't the same thing going on
>in Matt 15:37?
It is IF you understand the text to mean that they gathered up the
remainder of the crumbs, seven baskets, so that they were filled"--i.e. you
must take hEPTA SPURIDAS as appositional to TO PERISSEUON TWN KLASMATWN,
and then take PLHREIS as predicative to hEPTA SPURIDAS: but I think it's
easier to understand the entire phrase hEPTA SPURIDAS PLHREIS: "they picked
up the rest of the crumbs, seven full baskets."
--
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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