[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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