[B-Greek] Matthew 7:9 MH
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sun Mar 12 16:26:11 EST 2006
On Mar 12, 2006, at 2:01 PM, Bert de Haan wrote:
> Matthew 7:9 H TIS ESTIN EC hUMWN ANQRWPOS, hON AITHSEI hO hUIOS
> AUTOU ARTON, MH LIQON EPIDWSEI AUTWi;
>
> This sentence seems rather strange to me.
> The question is TIS; –What man would give him a stone? Yet the
> negating particle seems to be connected to LIQON and EPIDWSEI as if
> the question was- Would he give him a stone?
> To the inexperienced Greek reader that I am, the sentence seems to
> say; Which man among you, if his son will ask him for a loaf, will
> give him not a stone? (Or- will not give him a stone?)
> Any explanations?
See BDAG: MH §3. marker of expectation of a negative answer: a. in
direct questions: "He surely won't give him a stone, will he?"
I think that the confusion may lie in the thought that the TIS is
interrogative; it's actually the indefinite that is accented because
it's followed by an enclitic. Read it: "Or is there any one of you
whose son will ask him for bread -- he won't give him a stone, will he?"
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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