[B-Greek] EGENETO periphrastic?
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at ioa.com
Fri Feb 3 06:24:43 EST 2006
On Feb 2, 2006, at 11:59 PM, Tim Lewis wrote:
> I sent my first ever post to the group on Nov 4th 2005 on whether
> EGENETO is used as periphrastic. I guess my question went unnoticed
> because I didn't change the subject heading? Now that I'm less busy
> I've decided to re-ask my question.
>
> I wanted to know whether EGENETO + pres participle is likely to be
> periphrastic (in Mk 1:4) or am I just getting confused with English
> use?
>
> EGENETO IWANNHS [hO] BAPTIZWN EN THi ERHMWi KAI KHRUSSWN BAPTISMA
> METANOIAS EIS AFESIN hAMARTIWN.
The problem is complicated by the text-critical question whether the
article (present in some MSS, absent in others) was in the original.
Metzger, speaking for the NA27 committee, says most thought that the
article was added later and not present originally.
IF the article was not present, then we could understand a
periphrastic construction here: "John started baptizing ... and
heralding a repentance-baptism ... " with EGENETO functioning as the
aorist equivalent of EIMI (which has no aorist). In that case, the
aorist EGENETO would be used instead of HN (and periphrastics are not
uncommon in Mark) in order to the abrupt and surprising onset of
John's career, not altogether unlikely since in Mark's gospel John is
referred to as "Elijah redivivus" and it was characteristic of Elijah
to appear and disappear abruptly at one place or another (according
to the OT narrative). But if we read hO BAPTIZWN as equivalent to the
parallel forms in Mt and Lk hO BAPTISTHS, we could still have the
periphrastic EGENETO ... KHRUSSWN. NET assumes the validity of the
article and has "In the wilderness John the baptizer began
preaching ... "
On the other hand, it would be possible to understand this as an
instance of GINOMAI with a place indicator: EGENETO ... EN THi ERHMWi
(BDAG s.v. GINOMAI 6. to make a change in location in space, move
(with several prepositions).
Personally I'm inclined to accept the article with BAPTIZWN and to
understand EGENETO with EN THi ERHMWi as "suddenly appeared in the
desert" a clear association with the prophetic oracle just cited in
1:3 FWNH BOWNTOS E N T Hi E R H M Wi.
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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