[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

 

 

 

 




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