[B-Greek] 1st John 2:22

Carl W.Conrad cwconrad at ioa.com
Tue Nov 1 20:43:15 EST 2005


On Nov 1, 2005, at 3:54 PM, Elizabeth Kline wrote:

>
> On Nov 1, 2005, at 11:58 AM, Carl W. Conrad wrote:
>
>> OK, I'll yield on this but it would appear that the doubling of the
>> negation here is not of the same kind as the doubling in, say, that
>> in John 15:5 CWRIS EMOU OU DUNASQE POIEIN OUDEN ...
>
> I would agree that this is not a "surface structure" syntactical
> double negative since the first negation is tied up with the lexical
> semantics of the verb.  ATR page 1164 "There is one instance of OU in
> indirect discourse where it is pleonastic according to the classic
> idiom ... 1st John 2:22." However BDF #429 finds this idiom classical
> supported by K-G (? some german  work).
>
> "... negatives which appear commonly in subordinate constructions
> following upon a verb of negative meaning ..." (67.12.2 Attic Greek
> Prose Syntax)

The reference is to Kühner-Gerth, the 1898 edition of which is on  
line at the Perseus web-site, but I can't find this reference. In any  
case, what you've cited from BDF concerns negatives with infinitives  
(§429). I don't find in BDF any discussion of the sort of  
construction we have here in 1 John 2:22.

LSJ (s.v. ARNEOMAI): 4. in expressing denial, c. inf., either without  
MH, deny that . . , A.Eu.611, E.IA966; or with MH, say that . .  
not . . , Ar.Eq.572, Antipho 3.3.7, etc.; OUD' AUTOS ARNEITAI MH  
OU . . D.C.50.22; also OUK AN ARNOIMHN TO hORAN S.Ph.118; A. hOTI  
OU ..., hWS OU ..., X.Ath.2.17, Lys. 4.1, D.9.54.

Smyth §2743 states the matter most clearly: "After DENY, SPEAK  
AGAINST, DOUBT, etc., followed by hWS or hOTI, a redundant OU is  
often inserted. Thus, hWS MEN OUK ALHQH TAUT' ESTIN, OUC hEXET'  
ANTILEGEIN -- 'that this is true you will not be able to deny" D. 8:31.
Note a follows: "here the hWS clause is an internal accusative  
(accusative of content) after ANTILEGEIN. Originally the meaning  
seems to have been 'you will not be able to deny in this way -- this  
is not true' where OU is redundant."


Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/




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