[B-Greek] re: Mark 9.33ff: topic, focus

R Yochanan Bitan Buth ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il
Sat Jun 11 11:52:39 EDT 2005


Shalom Chet,
I will try your second question:
 
>TIS MEIZWN, in final position, is clearly the focus.  Although much is sometimes claimed
for final position as "emphatic" in Greek, I don't have much experience with this myself
and would like to know what kind of focus those of you who are more familiar with this
matter than I am in Greek would consider this to be.  Is it marked in any way?  It may
help to think of possible permutations of the phrases in this last clause:
a. PROS ALLHLOUS GAR DIELEXQHSAN EN TH hODWi TIS MEIZWN 
b. DIELEXQHSAN GAR PROS ALLHLOUS EN TH hODWi TIS MEIZWN 
c. TIS GAR MEIZWN DIELEXQHSAN PROS ALLHLOUS EN TH hODWi 
    etc.
Many thanks,
Chet Creider>
 
I read TIS MEIZWN as an independent clause, so TIS is fronted as a question word. Both words are ONOMASTIKH/nominative.
 
Your proposals of word order, ‘a’ and ‘b’, strike me as valid, but ‘c’ might need a different verb. Greek allows quoted speech to be placed before ‘he said’, similarly to English. But in that case the verb is usually something insipid like EFH ‘he said’ or EIPEN ‘he said’. DIELEXQHSAN would seem to expect a post-clausal quote or indirect quote. 
 
Notice AISWPOS 412, a man reproaching another man who was wailing:
   μὴ οὕτως,           MH OUTWS
“not thusly,”
 
εἶπεν          EIPEN
he said,
 
   ὦ οὗτος, ἀθύμει.    W OUTOS, AQUMEI
   “o man, should you lose heart
 

   οὐδὲ γὰρ, ἔχων τὸν χρυσὸν,   OUDE GAR EXWN XRUSON

   for not, when having the gold,
 

   εἶχες.  EIXES

   were you having it.”
 
= He said, “Hey man, don’t get get so worked up! 
   Even when you had the gold you didn’t really have it.”
 
It would take me some time to dig up parallels more parallels, so I will leave it here. 
 

 

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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