[B-Greek] Gal 5:16 OU MH TELESHTE, 5:17 hINA MH hA EAN QELHTE TAUTA POIHTE

Iver Larsen iver_larsen at sil.org
Wed Mar 17 11:59:34 EST 2004


>
> I have a question about Gal 5:16-5:17:
>
>    LEGW DE PNEUMATI PERIPATEITE KAI EPIQUMIAN SARKOS OU MH TELESHTE. hH
>    GAR SARX EPIQUMEI KATA TOU PNEUMATOS, TO DE PNEUMA KATA THS SARKOS;
>    TAUTA GAR ALLHLOIS ANTIKEITAI, hINA MH hA EAN QELHTE TAUTA POIHTE.
>
> In Gal 5:16, TELESHTE is subjunctive, and I assume that OU MH TELESHTE,
> in contrast to PERIPATEITE, makes this come out something like "if you
> walk in the Spirit then there ain't no way you're gonna fulfil the
> desires of the flesh." Strongly emphatic negative, stating that a
> possible future state, in the subjunctive, will not arise. Right?
>
> But some translations say "walk in the Spirit, and do not satisfy the
> desires of the flesh." Can OU MH TELESHTE have the force of an
> imperative in this verse?

The imperative interpretation after OU MH is rather curious.

Having looked at the 94 instances of OU MH in the NT, I could not find a
single one of them which would have the sense of an imperative.

So, I agree with you. The OU MW means "certainly not" or "never", a strong
emphasis on something that is not going to happen.

If it was MH alone before an aorist subjunctive, that would be different,
since that is a fairly common prohibition. I cannot really tell whether the
distinction that Ann has mentioned for Classical Greek holds up in the NT.
It doesn't look like it, since it occurs frequently in what I would
understand to be a general prohibition (e.g. Mat 10:19 MH FONEUSHiS, MH
MOICEUSHiS, MH KLEYHiS, KTL)

Iver Larsen




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