[B-Greek] Present Passive Imperative Prohibition
David McCoy
davidmcy at io.com
Wed Aug 29 15:38:05 EDT 2007
List members:
Carl wrote:
> Well, unless by "continuing to stop" you mean "pausing," I don't know
> that I'd ever use such a verbal phrase. I'd say this is a matter of
> "Aktionsart" (in the sense of kind of action): "stop" is essentially
> a perfective action, while "pause" is an imperfective action.
"Continuing to stop" does sound awkward, but I would think the idea
William was trying to get across with his option #1 was something more
like "continually refrain" (from being drunk).
I interpret William's second option as "Don't be continually drunk," which
would imply, it seems to me, "but you can be drunk occasionally." I would
reject this on two grounds:
1. The alternative given immediately following "ALLA PLHROUSQE EN
PNEUMATI" is also a present imperative, but it does not suffer from the
ambiguity brought in by the negative ("MH") in the first phrase, and so is
easier to understand. I would propose "but continually be filled with the
Spirit." That, though, leads me to conclude that the two alternatives are
conceived here as mutually exclusive. In other words, the formula "Don't
do A, but instead continually do B" suggests "A is never an option."
2. It would be out of the tenor of the NT to read, "Such-and-such action
(being drunk in this case) is not the best, so don't do it very much, just
now and then."
Finally, I suppose William's third option would have to assume that the
readers are drunk at the time of reading and would then mean something
like, "Sober up!" I find this unlikely as well.
Thus, the entire thing would be something like, "Continually refrain from
being drunk; instead, continually be filled with the Spirit."
Does this sound like a reasonable translation?
Thanks for letting me be part of the list, and the Lord bless you today!
David McCoy
"... if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in
your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." (Rom
10:9)
=======================================================================
On Thu, 16 Aug 2007, Carl W. Conrad wrote:
> Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 05:43:59 -0400
> From: Carl W. Conrad <cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu>
> To: wmhboyd at aol.com
> Cc: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Present Passive Imperative Prohibition
>
>
> On Aug 16, 2007, at 5:08 AM, wmhboyd at aol.com wrote:
>
>> Ephesians 5:18 says, MH MEQUSKESQE
>>
>> This is a present passive imperative prohibition, but is it the
>> continuous prohibition of an action, or the prohibition of a
>> continuous
>> action, and if the latter, can we tell if the action is a "process" or
>> a "state of being." I can think of three possibilities:
>>
>> 1. Continue to stop being filled (continuous prohibition),
>> 2. Stop continuing in the process of filling yourselves
>> (prohibition of
>> a continuous process),
>> 3. Stop continuing in the state of having been filled (prohibition
>> of a
>> continuous state of being).
>
> Well, unless by "continuing to stop" you mean "pausing," I don't know
> that I'd ever use such a verbal phrase. I'd say this is a matter of
> "Aktionsart" (in the sense of kind of action): "stop" is essentially
> a perfective action, while "pause" is an imperfective action.
>
> (1) MEQUSKESQE is middle rather than passive: you cannot issue a
> command to a person that someone else do something to him; getting
> drunk is something that one does to oneself and for oneself (or
> against one's better interests).
>
> (2) Prohibition (except in the social/political usage of the word) is
> not what's involved here but rather self-restraint: "Don't get
> drunk." You may understand the force of the present tense here
> aspectually as a matter of (a) initiating a process and continuing it
> -- start drinking and keep on keeping on, all the time getting more
> and more inebriated --, or (b) repeatedly doing just that -- drinking
> oneself again and again into a state of inebriation.
>
>> Willaim (The Barbarian) Boyd
>> In high temperature record breaking
>> Greensboro, North Carolina
>
> Then are the barbarians really at the gate?
> Yes, you guys over in the Piedmont have it far worse than those of us
> over here in the mountains -- we're uncomfortably warm but not really
> sizzling.
>
> Carl W. Conrad
> Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
> 1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
>
>
> ---
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