[B-Greek] Philippians 3:5 Dative of Respect replacing Accusative of Respect

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at ioa.com
Fri Oct 21 14:23:27 EDT 2005


On Oct 21, 2005, at 1:55 PM, David Bielby wrote:

> Merci beaucoup!
>
> So then the dative of respect limits the extension of the verb in
> the same way the accusative of respect does....

and of the adjective as well. What Smyth indicates is that it is
specifically verbs denoting a state that are thus modified/limited.

> as in this
> example.  And it really has nothing to do with Hebraic influence.
>
> Thank you for the help!
>
> David Bielby
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Carl W. Conrad [mailto:cwconrad at ioa.com]
> Sent: Friday, October 21, 2005 12:45 PM
> To: B-Greek B-Greek
> Cc: David Bielby
> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Philippians 3:5 Dative of Respect replacing
> Accusative of Respect
>
>
> On Oct 21, 2005, at 11:53 AM, David Bielby wrote:
>
>> As I’m working on my exegesis for Philippians this month, I have
>> noticed
>> several times Zerwick refers to the Dative of Respect replacing the
>> Accusative of Respect.  For example, in Philippians 3:5 we have  
>> one of
>> these…
>>
>> “PERITOMHi OKTAHMEROS, EK GENOUS ISRAEL, FULHS BENIAMIN,….
>>
>> My questions are:  Does the use of dative of respect in place of
>> accusative
>> of respect come from Hebraic influence, or was it the general
>> thrust of 1st
>> Century common Greek?  Also, what is the exact significance of this
>> subtlety?  In other words, why does Zerwick bring it to our  
>> attention?
>>
>
> I can't judge why Zerwick feels the need to take note of this --
> perhaps for
> no reason other than to call attention to the equivalency of  
> expression,
> but in fact the dative of respect is perfectly standard in Classical
> Attic. cf.
> Smyth §1516 with examples such as ANHR hHLIKIAi ETI NEOS and THi
> FWNHi TRACUS and ASQENHS TWi SWMATI. §1516a. says "The accusative
> of respect (§1600) is often nearly equivalent to the dative of  
> respect."
>
> Regarding Accusative of Respect, Smyths says (§1600): "To verbs
> denoting a
> state, and to adjectives, an accusative may be added to denote a
> thing in
> respect to which the verb or adjective is limited." Then in §1603, he
> adds,
> "For the accusative of respoect the instrumental dative (§1516) is
> also employed,
> and also the prepositions EIS, KATA, PRO0S, e.g. DIAFEREIN ARETHi or
> EIS ARETHN."
>
> In sum, I think it's mistaken to say that either construction
> "replaces the other."
> I think rather that they are simply equivalent expressions, without
> an ounce of
> difference, subtle or otherwise.
>
> Carl W. Conrad


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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