[B-Greek] Syntactical Function of a Participle?
Carl W.Conrad
cwconrad at ioa.com
Sun Apr 17 10:22:13 EDT 2005
On Apr 17, 2005, at 10:04 AM, Erick Venden wrote:
> This is my first time posting to this mailing list. I am struggling
> with
> Greek Syntax and especially when it comes to participles. Can someone
> please help me to understand the syntactical function of the
> participle EXWN
> in Philippians 1:23. It is rather obvious to me that this word is
> being
> used circumstantially but I cannot figure out the specific nuance of
> this or
> just about any participle.
It helps to have the whole text of the sentence or phrase in view:
SUNECOMAI DE EK TWN DUO, THN EPIQUMIAN ECWN EIS TO ANALUSAI KAI SUN
CRISTWi EINAI, POLLWi [GAR] MALLON KREISSON ...
ECWN EPIQUMIAN is equivalent to EPIQUMWN "desiring"; it agrees with the
implicity first-person subject of SUNECOMAI "I am conflicted ..."; the
participle is indeed circumstantial, which means that it explains the
circumstances of the writer's feeling conflicted; you can underestand
it in terms of the grammarian's subcategories of "causal"
("since/because I am desirous ...") or concessive ("although I am
desirous ... ") or temporal ("when I am desirous ...") or conditional
("if/if ever I am desirous ..."). Here it seems pretty clearly causal:
"I am conflicted from two (motivations/desires), inasmuch as I am
desirous of departing and being with Christ --that's far better, after
all-- ..."
I hope that helps some. And welcome to the list!
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at ioa.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
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