[B-Greek] 2 Peter 1:10 double accusatives with infinitive

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Mon Mar 13 19:57:12 EST 2006


On Mar 13, 2006, at 7:44 PM, Mitch Larramore wrote:

> SPOUDASATE BEBAIAN hUMWN THN KLHSIN KAI EKLOGHN
> POIEISQAI...

Hmm, where have I seen this verse come up recently?

> "make every effort to be sure of your calling and
> election..." (NET, the footnote has: Grk "make your
> calling and election sure.")
>
> Could someone please tell me how both of these
> accusatives are functioning here in relation to the
> infinitive? (What did the NET translators do with POIEISQAI?)

(a) THN KLHSIN KAI EKLOGHN are direct objects of POIEISQAI; BEBAIAN  
is predicate accusative with POIEISQAI;

(b) POIEIN/POIEISQAI with a predicate noun or predicate adjective in  
the sense "cause X to be Y" is a fairly common idiomatic usage. See  
BDAG 2.to undertake or do someth. that brings about an event, state,  
or condition, do, cause, bring about, accomplish, prepare, etc.
	h. with focus on causality: Beta. with double accusative of the  
object and a predicate;

3. NET, in case you hadn't noticed, is not trying to be a "literal  
version" in the sense of a wooden interlinear with word-for-word  
equivalence; rather it's attempting to convey the substance of the  
Greek in idiomatic English. The footnote does, however, give that  
sort of a woodenly literal version; here "your calling and election"  
are the direct object of "make," while "sure" is the predicate  
adjective.

You might compare similar constructions elsewhere in the GNT: Mt 4:19  
POIHSW hUMAS hALIEIS ANQRWPWN; Mk 1:3 EUQEIAS POIEITE TAS TRIBOUS  
AUTOU ...

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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