[B-Greek] Luke 13:35 AFIETAI

George F Somsel gfsomsel at juno.com
Wed Jun 15 10:37:42 EDT 2005


On Wed, 15 Jun 2005 15:45:12 +0200 "Wieland Willker"
<willker at chemie.uni-bremen.de> writes:
> Luke 13:35 
> IDOU AFIETAI UMIN O OIKOS UMWN
> 
> What is the correct understanding of AFIETAI here?
> 
> Some take it as: "your house is left to you".
> 
> But e.g. Pallis (Notes, 1932) writes: "this addition is due to 
> misunderstanding AFIETAI, which was taken to mean "is left"  whereas 
> it means EGKATALEIPETAI, "is being forsaken". ... The translation of 
> UMIN by "unto you", or "to your own disposal" as Meyer puts it, is 
> wrong; it is an ethic dative." 
> 
> ethic dative? Is that "your house has been abandoned you"?
> 
> 
> Best wishes
>     Wieland
>        <><
__________________

I don't know about this.  It seems to me that he's picking nits.  Here is
what Wallace says regarding the ethical dative

 
4. Ethical Dative (Dative of Feeling) [as far as I am concerned]
a. Definition
The dative substantive indicates the person whose feelings or viewpoint
are intimately tied to the action (or state) of the verb. This usage is
quite rare.
b. Key to Identification
Instead of to, paraphrase the personal noun in the dative with as far as
I am concerned (or you, he, she, etc.), as I look at it, or in my
opinion.
c. Semantics and Clarification
1) One might call this the existential dative or dative of opinion, in
that it speaks of something that is true (or ought to be true) only with
reference to the one whose identity (either via noun or pronoun) is put
in the dative. Thus, it does not speak of absolutes but of a particular
point of view.
2) This usage shares some kinship with the dative of reference. The
differences are as follows: (1) reference normally involves a thing,
while the ethical dative is always personal; (2) whereas the personal
dative of reference indicates the framework (and therefore tends to be
objective), the ethical dative indicates the person whose attitude is
involved (and hence this usage tends to be subjective).
3) This category also shares kinship with the dative of interest (esp.
dat. of advantage). The difference is one of perspective. In the
sentence, t??t? t? ß??µa µ??, if the dative is ethical, the translation
would be “This is food as far as I am concerned”; if a dative of
advantage, the idea would be “This is food for me.”

Daniel B. Wallace. (1999; 2002). Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics -
Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Page 146). Zondervan Publishing
House and Galaxie Software.

george
gfsomsel
___________


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