[B-Greek] 1 Cor. 14:8 word order

R Yochanan Bitan Buth ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il
Sun May 29 18:34:44 EDT 2005


> But in point of fact, Paul was a Jew.  Thus it would be perfectly 
reasonable for a well trained Rabbi such as he was, knowledgeable of 
Hebrew as he was, that he would think in Hebrew.  That the
construction 
of the sentence is acceptable Greek does not change the fact that it
is 
also typical Hebrew.  One almost hears remnants of the notion that
there 
is no Hebrew influence in the Greek of the New Testament at all.  I 
would dispute that misunderstanding.>
 
I am happy to hear a suggestion of Paul using Hebrew (cf. Acts 22:2). 
On the other hand, Hebrew does not like to front more than one item in
a sentence, rarely two. Yet in 1 Cor 14:8 there are three fronted
items. The Greek is good and does another thing that Hebrew does not
do: a Focal item ADHLON is fronted before fronted Topical items,
SALPIGKS FWNHN. When there are two frontings in Hebrew the first is
topical the second is usually focal (Focal = 'fronted, i.e. marked,
most salient piece of predication'). 
 
While Paul was at least tri-lingual, he was writing his good Greek at
1 Cor 14:8, perhaps what he had learned in school under Gamliel, who
was famous for running a hihg-level Greek school for the students. 
 
Helma Dik's book on Herodotus and Word Order would help, for those who
might be interested in a long, probably steep-learning-curve read. 
 
EIRHNH UMIN PLHQUNQEIH (this may be read without any Focus, just
topicalizations and a salient verb, though a focal reading is also
possible. It would probably have depended on the speaker's choice of
intonation.)

 

Randall

 

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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