[B-Greek] Jn. 8:40

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Nov 23 14:03:42 EST 2004


At 1:53 PM -0500 11/23/04, gfsomsel at juno.com wrote:
>
>Yes, but he is concerned with the problem of having (if I may
>overliteralize the translation)
>
>"Now you seek to kill me, a man who ** I told you the truth ** "
>
>where the 3 s is transformed into 1 s.  Your example seems somewhat
>different in that the "me", while 1 s. functions as the object and is
>continued by the 3 s.

NUN DE ZHTEITE ME APOKTEINAI ANQRWPON hOS THN ALHQEIAN hUMIN LELALHKA hHN
HKOUSA PARA TOU QEOU . . .

What actually are you saying, George? that ANQRWPON is third singular and
is the real antecedent of hOS? I'd understand ANQRWPON as appositional to
ME and I'd still understand ME as the antecedent of hOS and the factor
accounting for the first-person verb LALHKA (as well as HKOUSA). Was it
some other "person" (ANQRWPOS) hOS LELALHKEN and HKOUSEN? No, I was the
ANQRWPOS, and it was I who LELALHKA and HKOUSA.

You're well aware that you're "overliteralizing" the translation: there is
no EGW as subject of these first-singular verbs; the subject is hOS, and
hOS is NOT distinctively third-person in reference even if it functions
with third-person verbs in by far the majority of cases.

I must say, I'm glad we're talking about Greek, even if it could be
questioned whether we're "saying" anything.
-- 

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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