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

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Mon Aug 18 22:06:23 EDT 2008


On Aug 18, 2008, at 8:20 PM, Oun Kwon wrote:

> On Mon, Aug 18, 2008 at 7:27 PM, Carl Conrad <cwconrad2 at mac.com>  
> wrote:
>>
>> 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)
>>
>>
>
> Thanks, Carl.
>
> Yes, I can see in a book as VNPAG (with N standing  for 'iNfinitive
> and P for present; when P comes first, it would be Participle). What
> confused me was another file (in E-Sword) which put in a different
> sequence as VPN.
>
> I wish there were a standard way of expressing the parsing.

The simple truth of the matter is that you need to learn to recognize  
instantly the forms and not rely upon any parsing guide.

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






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