[B-Greek] Rev 1 1 => Main Clause

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sun Oct 31 20:28:06 EST 2004


At 6:40 PM -0600 10/31/04, Harold R. Holmyard III wrote:
>Dear Carl,
>
>I know that sometimes objects are understood in Greek, but I am
>wondering whether it would be possible for the initial relative
>pronoun hHN to do double duty.
>
>>  >APOKALUYIS IHSOU CRISTOU hHN EDWKEN AUTWi
>>  >hO QEOS DEIXEI TOIS DOULOIS AUTOU hA DEI GENESQAI EN TACEI, KAI ESHMANEN
>>  >APOSTEILAS DIA TOU AGGELOU AUTU TWi DOULWi AUTOU IWANNHi, hOS EMARTURHSEN
>>  >TON LOGON TOU QEOU KAI THN MARTURIAN IHSOU CRISTOU hOSA EIDEN.
>
>HH: It would be : (This is) the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God
>gave to Him to show to His servants the things that must shortly come
>to pass, and (which) He [Jesus] set forth, sending (it) through His
>angel to His servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and
>the testimony of Jesus Christ, whatever he saw.
>
>HH: While I think George's interpretation works, I was just wondering
>about this one. Could you please tell me if this would be possible?
>Thanks.

I don't see why it wouldn't be possible, but I'm also not sure that it is
necessary to assume it. Ellipsis of repeated elements is certainly a common
enough procedure in expository Greek. On the other hand, as someone--I
think it was Arie--noted this morning (morning in the US, afternoon in
Holland!), the author of Rev is known for frequent irregularities of
grammar, so I don't think we can be confident that he intended for the hHN
clause to be carried forward as object of ESHMANEN. I think it possible too
that SHMAINW here may be used intransitively, as in the celebrated dictum
of Heraclitus regarding the Delphic oracle: ... OUTE LEGEI OUTE KRUPTEI,
ALLA SHMAINEI -- "...neither speaks nor conceals but points/signals." If
that's the case, then ESHMANEN here might be taken as "delivered the
message."
-- 

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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