[B-Greek] 1 Cor. 14:8 word order
malcolm robertson
mjriii2003 at yahoo.com
Sun May 29 19:17:16 EDT 2005
Greetings all,
I think this discussion has been quite good. I would only add that the KAI GAR should be understood together and translated "and indeed" - introducing a distinct illustration for the purpose of reenforcing what has been said before. I will not elaborate further whether this use of KAI GAR is distinctly Greek or of Semitic origin. I lean toward the later here - but will offer no proof.
Cordially in Christ,
Malcolm Roberston
R Yochanan Bitan Buth <ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il> wrote:
> 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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