[B-Greek] Galatians 1:11: Accusative or nominative?
Ulrik Petersen
ulrikp at hum.aau.dk
Thu Jul 12 20:59:05 EDT 2007
Carl W. Conrad wrote:
>
> On Jul 12, 2007, at 6:27 PM, Ulrik Petersen wrote:
>
>> Dear all,
>>
>> I was analyzing Galatians chapter 1 today using my Linguistic Tree
>> Constructor:
>>
>> http://ltc.sourceforge.net
>>
>> and I came across this text in Galatians 1:11:
>>
>> GNWRIZW GAR hUMIN ADELFOI TO EUAGGELION TO EUAGGELISQEN hUP EMOU hOTI
>> OUK ESTIN KATA ANQRWPON
>>
>> I was trying to grasp the syntactic function of
>>
>> TO EUAGGELION TO EUAGGELISQEN hUP EMOU
>>
>> whether it is the subject of the copula "ESTIN", or whether it is
>> something else.
>>
[snip]
> Regardless how the syntax of Gal 1:11 is understood, the only
> appropriate English translation would have to be " ... that the gospel
> preached by me is not from man." That would be true if one understands
> TO EUAGGELION TO EUAGGELISQEN hUP EMOU as a "proleptic" accusative
> object of GNWRIZW (a not uncommon arrangement such as is also seen in
> Mark 1;24 οἶδά σε τίς εἶ [OIDA SE TIS EI] -- cf. Smyth §2182, BDF
> §476} or as the nominative subject of ESTIN within the hOTI clause. In
> Gal 1:11 the fact that TO EUAGGELION TO EUAGGELISQEN hUP EMOU is
> neuter sg. makes determination of its case -- whether nominative or
> accusative -- questionable, but it does fall intothe pattern of the
> common "proleptic" construction of logical subjects of substantive
> clause construed as objects of introductory main verbs of knowing or
> asking. That, at any rate, is the reason that standard parsing works
> mark it as accusative.
>
> Carl W. Conrad
> Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
> 1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
> cwconrad2 at mac.com
> WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
>
>
>
Thanks to all who answered, especially Dr. Conrad. It was very helpful
to know that it is called a "proleptic subject". This led me to Smyth's
grammar [1], paragraph 2182 (p. 488), which expands upon and explains
what Dr. Conrad said above.
Smyth's grammar is online, by the way:
http://www.textkit.com/learn/ID/142/author_id/63/
In 1 Cor 15:1 and 2 Cor 8:1, I found constructions similar to the one in
Gal 1:11. In the case of 2 Cor 8:1, the accusative is feminine, leaving
no doubt as to the case. It is not, so far as I can see, a proleptic
subject of the following clause, but it is an accusative object of a
form of GNWRI/ZW. It also seems to "anticipate" the following hOTI
clause, and so may be "proleptic" in some sense.
GNWRIZOMEN DE hUMIN ADELFOI THN CARIN TOU QEOU THN DEDOMENHN EN TAIS
EKKLHSIAIS THS MAKEDONIAS
hOTI EN POLLHi DOKIMHi QLIYEWS hH PERISSEIA THS CARAS AUTWN KAI hH KATA
BAQOUS PTWCEIA AUTWN EPERISSEUSEN EIS TO PLOUTOS THS hAPLOTHTOS AUTWN
Thanks again!
Ulrik Petersen
[1] Herbert Weir Smyth (1920), "A Greek Grammar for Colleges", American
Book Company.
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