[B-Greek] subject of participles in Mt 11:1b - disciples?

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Mon Aug 18 19:27:25 EDT 2008


On Aug 18, 2008, at 6:02 PM, Oun Kwon wrote:

> 11a   KAI EGENETO hOTE ETELESEN hO IHSOUS
> DIATASSWN TOIS DWDEKA MAQHTAIS AUTOU
> 11b  METEBH EKEIQEN TOU
> DIDASKEIN KAI KHRUSSEIN EN TAIS POLESIN AUTWN
>
>
> Being connected with KAI, 11:1 is continuous with 10:42; whereas a new
> narrative begins at 11:2 (with DE).
>
> Thus I like to see the participles διδασκειν and  
> κηρυσσειν of 11:1b
> seem taking on DIATASSWN in 11:1a as well as APESTEILEN in 10:5. Hence
> teaching and proclaiming are the activities for the disciples to carry
> on upon their mission after the lengthy instruction of the whole
> chapter 10.
>
> Superficially their subject is Jesus.  The flow of text from beginning
> of Ch. 10 tells me to go for the disciples as the subject.
> Grammatically I do not find a help to decide. Is there anything to
> prove me I may be in a wrong track?

DIDASKEIN and KHRUSSEIN are not participles; they are infinitives  
construed with the genitive article TOU in an infinitive-of-purpose  
construction; that's why you won't find any subject for them. 11:1 is  
really the conclusion to the missionary discourse of chapter 10: 11:1a  
is a formula comparable to what we see elsewhere marking the end of a  
major discourse by Jesus (cf. Mt 7:28, end of the Sermon on the Mount,  
13:53, end of the Parable discourse, 19:1, end of the discourse on  
church discipline, 26:1, end of the eschatological discourse). 11:1b  
marks Jesus' move toward public teaching and proclamation: "he went  
away from there in order to teach and preach in their cities."

I don't really see any relationship between these infinitives and the  
preceding "instruction" or "directions for mission" (that's what  
DIATASSWN means) of the disciples/apostles. 11:2 begins the John the  
Baptist pericope; 11:1 brings the "missionary" discourse to an end,  
noting that Jesus moved on to a different task.

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






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