[B-Greek] Luke 12:4 FOBHQHTE why not an imperative?
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Sep 8 07:29:01 EDT 2004
At 11:09 AM +0100 9/8/04, D Jongkind wrote:
>Luke 12:4
>LEGW DE UMIN TOIS FILOIS MOU, MH FOBHQHTE APO TWN APOKTEINONTWN TO SWMA
>KAI META TAUTA MH ECONTWN PERISSOTERON TI POIHSAI
>
>and Luke 12:5
>
>... NAI LEGW UMIN, TOUTON FOBHQHTE
>
>In Luke 12:4, FOBHQHTE is accented as a subjunctive, while in the part
>of the next verse that I cited it is accented as an imperative. What
>could be the reasoning for choosing the subjunctive above the imperative
>in verse 4? The structures of the two sentences is roughly equal, and
>the context clearly requires an imperative in the latter example. So
>what am I missing?
The first FOBHQHTE is rightly accented as a subjunctive because it's an
indirect command dependent upon the introductory LEGW hUMIN ("I tell you
that you should NOT dread those who kill the body ..."). Of course it has
the same force as an imperative, but the aorist subjunctive with MH
regularly does have imperatival force. So, yes: both verbs would be
TRANSLATED into English and perhaps most target languages as imperative,
but the first Greek form is indeed an aorist subjunctive.
--
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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