[B-Greek] hINA clauses

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Mar 18 10:43:28 EST 2005


At 9:50 AM -0500 3/18/05, Jim West wrote:
>Carl W Conrad wrote:
>
>>But in fact a result clause shows what happens as a consequence, not what
>>the intent of the agent was. It is true that in Koine Greek the sharp
>>difference between a purpose clause and a result clause has weakened
>>considerably. The nature of the hOTI clauses really has nothing to do with
>>the nature of the hINA clauses; they are not "because" clauses but rather
>>substantive clauses:
>>
>>
>How can you separate the result from the cause of the agent?

I confess that I'm not quite sure what the above question means, but I'll
try to make my meaning a little clearer for the sake of all.

Ordinarily we distinguish a PURPOSE clause as indicating the reason why an
agent performs an action (e.g. "I am writing, so that you may understand
what the difference is between a purpose clause and a result clause."),
from a RESULT clause which indicates the consequence of an action (e.g.,
"The teacher explained the difference between a purpose clause and a result
clause, so that we understood what the difference really is.").

In earlier Greek the most common construction to indicate purpose was a
hINA + subjunctive clause explaining the intent of the agent, while the
most common construction to indicate consequence or result was a hWSTE +
infinitive construction to indicate the probable consequence or
alternatively a hWSTE + indicative construction to indicate the actual
consequence. In later Greek we find the line between purpose and result
constructions grew fuzzier so that hINA + subjunctive constructions were
occasionally employed to indicate a result while hWSTE + infinitive
constructions were occaasionally used to indicate purpose, and quite
commonly an EIS + articular-infinitive constructions could be used either
to indicate a result or to indicate a purpose. The English adverbial
conjunctive phrase "so that" can function with the same sort of
ambivalence, as note the two clauses: "They helped us, so that we finished
our job sooner" (result clause) and "They helped us, so that we could
finish our job sooner." Here it's clear enough that the former clause
introduced by "so that" is a result clause while the the latter clause
introduced by "so that" is a purpose clause: the first clause shows what
happened as a consequence of the help, the latter clause shows the
intention of those who helped. But one can also see from these illustrative
sentences that there is a degree of similarity in the two "so that" clauses
, although one is clearly a result clause while the other is just as
clearly a purpose clause. BUT, put that sentence and the alternative
dependent clauses into Koine Greek and we can have an identical
construction: EPHRKESAN hHMIN hWSTE QATTON APOTELESAI TO ERGON. This is
ambiguous and could be understood either as "They helped us so that we
finished the task" or "They helped us in order for us to finish the task."

But in 1 Cor 1:26-28 there's not that ambiguity.

26 BLEPETE GAR THN KLHSIN hUMWN, ADELFOI, hOTI OU POLLOI SOFOI KATA SARKA,
OU POLLOI DUNATOI, OU POLLOI EUGENEIS; 27 ALLA TA MWRA TOU KOSMOU EXELEXATO
hO QEOS hINA KATAISCUNHi TOUS SOFOUS KAI TA ASQENH TOU KOSMOU EXELEXATO hO
QEOS hINA KATAISCUNHi TA ISCURA 28 KAI TA AGENH TOU KOSMOU KAI TA
EXOUQENHMENA EXELEXATO hO QEOS TA MH ONTA hINA TA ONTA KATARGHSHi.

The hOTI clause explains what the "calling" of the Corinthian congregation
actually involved: a choosing of those who were not clever, not
prestigious, not well-born. Then Paul explains WHY that it so: it is
BECAUSE God chose what was lacking in wisdom, what was lacking in prestige,
lacking in nobility IN ORDER TO  bring the clever people and the down a
notch in arrogance ..." These hINA CLAUSES in 1 Cor 1:27-28 are indeed
purpose clauses, and not result clauses.
-- 

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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