[B-Greek] Usage of Neuter Singular Article

Maurice A. O'Sullivan mauros at iol.ie
Fri Sep 24 13:59:49 EDT 2004


At 17:55 24/09/2004, dhoxworth at charter.net wrote:

>sort of saw this in one grammar (I think it was Porter), but it didn't 
>seem that they spent much time on it. What do grammars call this 
>category/usage of the article?

It's the _combination_ of the infinitive and neuter article which matters here.

Daniel B. Wallace. in his: Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics - Exegetical 
Syntax of the New Testament (Vol. 1, Page 600). Zondervan Publishing House 
and Galaxie Software has this to say in his treatment of the various uses 
of the infinitive:

 >>>
II. Substantival Uses

There are four basic uses of the substantival infinitive: subject, direct 
object, appositional, and epexegetical.  A specialized use of the direct 
object is indirect discourse. But because it occurs so frequently, it will 
be treated separately. Thus, pragmatically, there are five basic uses of 
the substantival infinitive: subject, direct object, indirect discourse, 
appositional, and epexegetical.  <<<<

and he deals specifically with Phil. 1:21:
 >>>
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain

These infinitives could also be translated as gerunds: 'living is Christ 
and dying is gain.' This text illustrates two other points of Greek syntax: 
(1) The subject has the article (in the first clause, since one of the 
substantives has the article and the other is a proper noun [in Paul], what 
determines the subject is word order); and (2) the tenses of the 
infinitives are lexically informed. It is no accident that the first 
infinitive is present ('to continue living') and the second is aorist ('to 
die'). <<<



Maurice A. O'Sullivan  [ Bray, Ireland ]
mauros at iol.ie





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