[B-Greek] Matt 5:23

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sat Aug 11 10:29:14 EDT 2007


On Aug 11, 2007, at 9:25 AM, jayadkins26 at bellsouth.net wrote:

(Let's start from scratch with the transcription:

Matt. 5:23 ἐὰν οὖν προσφέρῃς τὸ δῶρόν  
σου ἐπὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριον κἀκεῖ  
μνησθῇς ὅτι ὁ ἀδελφός σου ἔχει τι  
κατὰ σοῦ,  24 ἄφες ἐκεῖ τὸ δῶρόν  
σου ἔμπροσθεν τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου καὶ  
ὕπαγε πρῶτον διαλλάγηθι τῷ ἀδελφῷ  
σου, καὶ τότε ἐλθὼν πρόσφερε τὸ  
δῶρόν σου.

5:23 EAN OUN PROSFERHiS TO DWRON SOU EPI TO QUSIASTHRION KA'KEI  
MNHSQHiS hOTI hO ADELFOS SOU ECEI TI KATA SOU, 24 AFES EKEI TO DWRON  
SOU EMPROSQEN TOU QUSIASTHRIOU KAI hUPAGE PRWTON DIALLAGHQI TWi  
ADELFWi SOU, KAI TOTE ELQWN PROSFERE TO DWRON SOU.

> Matt 5:23 (NASU) "Therefore if you are presenting your offering at  
> the altar, and there remember that your brother has something  
> against you,
>
> Please help me to identify this conditional statement.  Would you  
> call it a hypothetical third class conditional statement.  Wallace  
> says “The third class condition encompasses a broad range of  
> potentialities in Koine Greek.  It depicts what is likely to occur  
> in the future, what could possibly occur, or even what is only  
> hypothetical and will not occur.” [page 470] Since this is a  
> possibility, it is his statement that it “will not occur” that  
> has me confused.  Thank you in advance.

I guess this falls into what most grammars call the 3rd class  
condition; I learned it simply as a 'Future more vivid" condition.  
Frankly, I don't see the worth of identifying a classification here;  
what needs to be thought through are the elements of the sentence  
confronting you. The protasis indicates a situation that may very  
well be confronted in the future as a possibility; the apodosis for  
that sort of protasis is more often a future indicative indicating  
what will necessarily follow upon fulfillment of the contingency, but  
the imperative also points to the future with an insistence upon an  
action that will have to be performed if the contingency is encountered.


Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)





More information about the B-Greek mailing list