[B-Greek] Mark 9:33ff In the Way
R Yochanan Bitan Buth
ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il
Wed Jun 8 09:25:23 EDT 2005
Egrapsen (edited for clausing sense)
>KAI HLQON EIS KAFARNAOUM
And they came into Capernaum
KAI EN TH OIKIAi GENOMENOS
and in the house coming to be
EPHRWTA AUTOUS
he was questioning them
TI EN TH hODWi DIELOGIZESQE
what in the way they debated
hOI DE ESIWPWN
and they were silent
PRO ALLHLOUS GAR DIELEXQHSAN EN TH hODWi
toward one another for they debated in the way
TIS MEIZWN
who was greater>
The first EN TH ODW is a Topicalization (i.e., a contextualization,
marking a setting a contextual point of reference).
The second EN TH ODW is in a default order and is not marked
while PROS ALLHLOUS becomes another contextualization for the salient
information which is the content of the discusssion.
There is no focus on EN TH ODW in my reading in either case.
Also, in Jesus' answer, I would read
PANTWN ESXATOS KAI PANTWN DIAKONOS
with PANTWN a contextualization and ESXATOS the salient/most-important
information, ditto for DIAKONOS. Neither of these would be Focus
constructions but they carry the main point and contrastive point.
That is how I read, and as with most readings is not necessarily
unique:
--other poets can get up at a Tuesday night coffee/mead/OINOS and
present different readings.
Blessings
Randall Buth
Randall Buth, PhD
Director, Biblical Language Center
www.biblicalulpan.org
and Director, Biblical Studies in Israel
Hebrew University, Rothberg International School
ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list