[B-Greek] Mt 1:18 hEUREQH EN GASTRI ECOUSA

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at ioa.com
Wed Feb 1 15:13:50 EST 2006


On Feb 1, 2006, at 2:50 PM, Elizabeth Kline wrote:

> On Feb 1, 2006, at 11:09 AM, Iver Larsen wrote:
>
>> I see no
>> problem with the translation: "it emerged that she was pregnant"
>
> Other than the fact that no native English speaker would ever phrase
> it that way.

I think that all Iver was trying to do with this phrase was explain  
how the Danish version "worked."

One question regarding these versions (and Harold's "it became  
evident that she was pregnant") is whether  hEUREQH in hEUREQH EN  
GASTRI ECOUSA is to be conceived as an impersonal verb, in which  
case, I guess, (MARIA) ... EN GASTRI ECOUSA will have to be some sort  
of a complement. I frankly don't think that's very likely,  
particularly in view of such other GNT instances of the idiom, e.g.,

Lk 9:36 KAI EN TWi GENESQAI THN FWNHN hEUREQH IHSOUS MONOS (Surely we  
wouldn't want to convey this as, "it became evident that he was  
alone" -- but perhaps some would.)

2 Cor 5:3 ... EI GE KAI EKDUSAMENOI OU GUMNOI hEUREQHSOMEQA -- "...  
it won't become evident that we will be naked ..."?

Rev 16:20 KAI PASA NHSOS EFUGEN KAI ORH OUC hEUREQHSAN -- " ... and  
every island vanished and it became evident that the mountains did  
not exist ..."

Iver has brought in the Lucan pericope, which, in my opinion, is not  
really relevant to understanding the phrasing of Mt 1:18; our concern  
here is not with what happened but with how the phrase describing it  
is best understood. My contention is that hEUREQH in Mt 1:18 is not  
passive but is middle; it is somewhat like EGENETO, but EGENETO seems  
more neutral in indication of event; hEUREQH has more the force of  
becoming evident, much like EFANH (which is not passive but the  
aorist middle of FAINOMAI), and like FAINOMAI, hEURISKOMAI in this  
sense is a personal verb taking a nominative complement. Or so I think.

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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