[B-Greek] John 3:19

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at ioa.com
Mon Nov 21 22:09:51 EST 2005


On Nov 21, 2005, at 8:12 PM, Dony K. Donev wrote:

> Having chosen to reject a case of constructio ad sensum for the  
> singular EIMI in John 3:19, I translate: ": and men have loved more  
> darkness than light, for it was their evil works."

I really don't understand how you have arrived at this: MALLON is an  
adverb, not an adjective. And I don't see that there's any  
constructio ad sensum in any case; the grammar here is perfectly  
straightforward.

Text: hAUTH DE ESTIN hH KRISIS hOTI TO FWS ELHLUQEN EIS TON KOSMON  
KAI HGAPHSAN hOI ANQRWPOI MALLON TO SKOTOS H TO FWS; HN GAR AUTWN  
PONHRA TA ERGA.

> Is it possible that the accusative "darkness" becomes the singular  
> noun in the added clause at the end, to be understood that "the  
> darkness was their evil works?"

You mean that we should understand TO SKOTOS as the implicit subject  
of HN in the final clause of the verse? No, I really don't see how  
that is possible: TA ERGA is clearly the subject of HN and PONHRA is  
predicate adjective; a neuter plural subject generally does take a  
singular verb. Moreover your way of taking it is impossible because  
PONHRA cannot be an attribute of TA ERGA; your understanding would  
require the phrasing to be TA PONHRA ERGA AUTWN.

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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