[B-Greek] Mk 11:14 FAGOI (optative)
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at ioa.com
Fri Jan 20 19:19:10 EST 2006
On Jan 20, 2006, at 4:52 PM, Webb wrote:
> And he saw a fig tree a long ways away, with leaves on it. He went
> to it, in
> case he might find some figs on it. And when he came, he didn't find
> anything on it but leaves-because it wasn't the right season for
> figs. And
> Jesus said to it, "From now on, may nobody ever eat your fruit again!"
>
>
>
> MHKETI EIS TON AIWNA EK SOU MHDEIS KARPON FAGOI
>
>
>
> I can't resist suspecting that the force is beyond "may nobody ever
> eat",
> i.e. a curse or a statement of a wish, but "nobody will"-a kind of
> self-conscious prophetic pronouncement. Any opinions as to the
> force of
> optative in this setting?
Of course it has the force of a curse, but I think it's an
"authentic" optative:
"May nobody ever eat fruit from you!"
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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