[B-Greek] Re: Purpose Clause

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Feb 25 13:02:40 EST 2005


At 2:21 PM +0200 2/25/05, Muzi Mbutho wrote:
>Beata Urbanek wrote:
>>
>> There's an example of hINA clause used as result-clause in John 9:2:
>> RABBI TIS hHMARTEN hOUTOS H hOI GONEIS AUTOU hINA TYFLOS GENNHQH
>> and surely the "result" was manifested.
>>
>> Genarally, I think you are being more a theologian than a B-Greeker here.
>>
>> Beata Urbanek
>>
>> PS. Could we possibly have your full name?
>
>I have added my full name in my account. I hope it now appears. I'll
>also add at the bottom.
>
>I didn't deny that results are manifested. My question is simply: Is the
>realisation (actuality) of result important or not important? Should we
>take it as having been fulfilled even though we don't see it? This does
>not deny that there are instances where the result is manifested. So far
>my question has not been fully answered. By the way it is help that I'm
>looking for, as I showed in my first post that there Greek teachers seem
>to say different things according to my understanding. I'm not debating.
>
>Here again are the issues that confuse me (refer back to my first post):
>
>Collins seems to that the result is realised. Theologically I agree with
>him as far as Gal 2:16 is concerned. However, grammatically I'm still
>confused.
>
>Burton seems to say that the result is not realised.
>
>Keating seems to say that the realisation of result is not important
>(a). I understand (d) as saying that whether or not we see the result we
>should take it as having been fulfilled.

You're probably going to find that B-Greekers have different judgments on
some of these issues also. I would say that an authentic purpose clause
does NOT indicate that the result actually takes place; the original
subjunctive clause that is headed by the adverbial conjunction hINA
actually indicates that the action of the main verb is performed with the
volition that the result should take place--but the presence of the clause
in the subjunctive does not itself indicate that the result does in fact
take place.

Might I urge you to keep theological views altogether out of this
discussion on the list? Undoubtedly understanding the exact sense of the
Greek has theological implications for understanding the extended sense of
a text, but we limit our discussion here to what the Greek text says AS A
GREEK TEXT.
-- 

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/



More information about the B-Greek mailing list