[B-Greek] word order in Mt 7:12
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sat Aug 18 04:10:01 EDT 2007
On Aug 17, 2007, at 11:47 PM, Oun Kwon wrote:
> A clause in Mt 7:12
>
> hINA POIWSIN hMIN hOI ANQRWPOI
It's hUMIN rather than hHMIN, although the pronunciation might be
confused.
> Please kindly refresh about Gk word order for me. I understand
> normally it is V+S+O in Gk.
>
> Is the dative (hMIN) considered as Object, which is placed before
> Subject (nominative hOI ANQRWPOI) (to be emphatic)?
It might be better to have the fuller sentence before us:
Πάντα οὖν ὅσα ἐὰν θέλητε ἵνα
ποιῶσιν ὑμῖν οἱ ἄνθρωποι, οὕτως
καὶ ὑμεῖς ποιεῖτε αὐτοῖς
PANTA OUN hOSA EAN QELHTE hINA POIWSIN hUMIN hOI ANQRWPOI, hOUTWS KAI
hUMEIS POIEITE AUTOIS.
The clause in question, hOSA hINA POIWSIN hUMIN hOI ANQRWPOI, here is
a substantive clause functioning as direct object of QELHTE -- but it
might be better to view it as it is in Modern Greek: an infinitive
complementary to QELHTE (in MG the subjunctive with an appropriate
nominative subject functions as an infinitive).
hUMIN is an indirect object, hOSA the direct of POIWSIN; there really
isn't anything extraordinary about the dative indirect object
following the verb; note the parallel structures of POIWSIN hUMIN and
POIEITE AUTOIS.
What seems extraordinary perhaps is the hOSA as object of POIWSIN
preceding the conjunction EAN, but in this seemingly colloquial sort
of expression the collocation PANTA hOSA EAN carries the sense
"whatever" or "anything that ..."
Note how much simpler Luke's formulation is:
Luke 6:31 Καὶ καθὼς θέλετε ἵνα ποιῶσιν
ὑμῖν οἱ ἄνθρωποι ποιεῖτε αὐτοῖς
ὁμοίως.
KAI KAQWS QELETE hINA POIWSIN hUMIN hOI ANQRWPOI POIEITE AUTOIS hOMOIWS.
Here KAQWS ... hOMOIWS seems much smoother than hOSA ... PANTA in Mt
7:12 where PANTA is, properly speaking, the object of the imperative
POIEITE in the main clause.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list