[B-Greek] Matthew 7:9 MH

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Mon Mar 13 17:18:26 EST 2006


On Mar 13, 2006, at 3:03 PM, Oun Kwon wrote:

>> On 3/13/06 "Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu> wrote
>
>> 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?"
>>
>
>
> OJK:  I am a little bit confused.  Do you say TIS is the one without
> acute accent (indefinite)?  The text in Gk has it with the accent (for
> interrogative).

When the indefinite pronoun TIS is followed by an enclitic (ESTIN in  
this instance), then it MUST have an acute accent. I suppose you can  
read it as, "What man of you is there whom his son will ask for a  
loaf? Surely he won't give him a stone, will he?" But that's awkward  
because the main clause syntactically here is the one beginning with  
MH. The sequence is rather colloquial, a sort of anacoluthon, with  
the final clause functioning independently rather than linked to the  
rest: "Or who among you whose son asks him for bread -- will he give  
him a stone?" It's awkward whether you read that TIS as interrogative  
or indefinite.


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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