[B-Greek] word/phrase to be supplied

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Fri Nov 30 09:26:54 EST 2007


On Nov 30, 2007, at 9:00 AM, Mitch Larramore wrote:

> KAI POLLOI AKOUONTES EXEPLHSSONTO LEGONTES, POQEN
> TOUTWi TAUTA;
>
> And many hearing [him] were amazed saying, "From where
> [did] this one [learn] these things?

This is, of course, an Englished version of the Greek text; it doesn't  
reflect the structure of the Greek formulation, wherein the cited  
question has the form of a typical dative of possession -- woodenly  
literal it would be Englished, "whence to this one (are) these things?"

> Have there been any studies done regarding which kind
> of words/phrases were often omitted/understood/to be
> supplied in the first century? Sometimes the
> word/phrase to be supplied is more substantial than
> other times. Here, we must supply [learn] without
> which the sentence makes no sense.
>
> Finally, should I look for words to be supplied even
> when the given statement is a complete thought? Maybe
> there is more than what's on the surface?

I would think one needs first to analyze the elements in the syntactic  
structure; in this instance the expected verb is a form of EIMI, which  
is regularly omitted when its implicit presence is clear.


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




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