[B-Greek] Mt. 28:17 hOI DE EDISTASAN

Albert Pietersma albert.pietersma at sympatico.ca
Mon Apr 17 10:45:22 EDT 2006


On Apr 17, 2006, at 9:02 AM, Albert & Julia Haig wrote:

> Fair enough, but I think we can say more than this. ve in Hebrew does 
> not mark a shift, and yes, the translator has selected DE to mark a 
> shift which is unmarked in the Hebrew. But he has also selected DE to 
> mark the meaning of ve. Otherwise, he has chosen to leave ve 
> untranslated, which he does not do elsewhere. So it seems that the 
> translator thought (a) we need to mark a conjunction (indicated by ve) 
> *and* (b) we need to mark a shift (not indicated in the Hebrew 
> grammar), and consequently chose DE. In short, there does seem to be 
> some overlap between the meaning of DE and the meaning of ve.
If we agree that Hebrew VE DOES NOT mark a shift, we cannot at the same 
time say that VE DOES mark a shift. That can only make sense, if we 
shift our categories from what SEPARATES VE and DE, namely, that DE 
marks contrast and VE does not mark contrast, to what VE and DE HAVE IN 
COMMON, namely, that both are connectives. But that is like saying that 
nouns in Greek are like nouns in Hebrew. The point at issue was, it 
seems to me, WHAT KIND OF CONNECTIVES VE AND DE ARE, respectively. And 
there the answer remains: DE marks contrast, but  VE  does not mark 
contrast.
Al
—
Albert Pietersma
Professor of Septuagint and Hellenistic Greek
Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations
University of Toronto
Home: 21 Cross Street,
Weston ON Canada M9N 2B8
Email: albert.pietersma at sympatico.ca
Homepage: http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~pietersm




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