[B-Greek] Double negative

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Jan 20 09:59:34 EST 2005


At 9:36 AM -0500 1/20/05, JMonte2000 at aol.com wrote:
>Hi all
>    In Chapter 31 of Mounce's book in the exegetical  insight he talks about
>the double neg. from John 10:27-28a. Is it the view of  all NTG scholars that
>when this is used there is no way that you could perish,  which would make it
>a great perseverance proof text.
>I am not wanting to get into doctrine, only is it the overall view that  when
>the double neg. is used it means NEVER, NO WAY you will perish.

Jimmy, there's not really any extraordinary insight involved in this OU MH
APOLWNTAI. It's a standard grammatical usage that OU MH + aorist
subjunctive is the strongest possible assertive formulation. Here's
Wallace, GGBB, p. 468
==========
c.  Emphatic Negation Subjunctive

	1)  Definition

	Emphatic negation is indicated by OU MH plus the aorist subjunctive
or, less frequently, OU MH/ plus the future indicative (e.g., Matt 26:35;
Mark 13:31; John 4:14; 6:35). This is the strongest way to negate something
in Greek.

	One might think that the negative with the subjunctive could not be
as strong as the negative with the indicative. However, while OU + the
indicative denies a certainty, OU MH + the subjunctive denies a
potentiality. The negative is not weaker; rather, the affirmation that is
being negatived is less firm with the subjunctive. OU MH rules out even the
idea as being a possibility: "OU MH is the most decisive way of negativing
something in the future."58

	Emphatic negation is found primarily in the reported sayings of
Jesus (both in the Gospels and in the Apocalypse); secondarily, in
quotations from the LXX. Outside of these two sources it occurs only
rarely. As well, a soteriological theme is frequently found in such
statements, especially in John: what is negatived is the possibility of the
loss of salvation.
-- 

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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