[B-Greek] Emphatic forms of pronouns following prepositions
Iver Larsen
iver_larsen at sil.org
Mon Nov 6 15:23:07 EST 2006
In both the LXX and the NT only one preposition takes the enclitic form ME, and that is PROS, but
even PROS is occasionally used with EME. All other prepositions take EME without exception, so there
is no choice. There is no apparent difference in meaning or emphasis between ME and EME when used
with PROS, if that is what you are asking. In the case of EIS and all other prepositions, it is not
an option to use ME.
A fronted position is likely to indicate emphasis, but that is a different parameter. It is this
word order and the repetition of PISTEUETE that suggest the translation you have for John 14:1: "You
believe in God, believe also in me".
Iver Larsen
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robb Wallace" <robbw at calvary-tricities.org>
Hello,
I previously understood that when a pronoun was in its emphatic form as
opposed to its regular form, the author was showing emphasis. But I just
read that often emphatic forms are used when the pronouns are the objects of
prepositions, even when no emphasis was meant. So for example John 14:1:
…you believe in God, believe also in me.
…pisteuete eis ton qeon, kai eis eme pisteuete.
I always thought John was emphasizing “ME” in the verse primarily by using
the emphatic form “eme” (and also by placing it before the verb at the
beginning of the clause), but “eme” is also the object of the preposition.
Does that just make “eme” regular in meaning, with no emphasis implied or is
it still emphatic?
So, if we took word order out of the equation and changed it to “kai
pisteuete eis eme”, would we still translate this as “believe also in ME
(emphasized)” or simply as “believe also in me”?
Thanks,
Robb Wallace
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