[B-Greek] Luke 5.38

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Sat Feb 9 09:17:17 EST 2008


On Feb 9, 2008, at 9:11 AM, Mitch Larramore wrote:

> ALLA OINON NEON EIS ASKOUS KAINOUS BLHTEON
>
> Could someone please give me a very literal Greek
> translation of this, and then show me how it is
> "smoothed" out to bring it into English. My issue is
> with BLHTEON, which I believe is a (verbal) adjective.
> What is it modifying?? It seems to be functioning as a
> finite verb here!

BLHTEON is a verbal adjective construed implicitly with an elliptical  
ESTI(N). The verbal adjectives in -TEON (older TEOS/TEA/TEON) are not  
very common in Koine Greek; they are usually termed "passive" but what  
this form means is "there is need to ... " or "it is necessary to ...  
" or "one must ..." (supply the verb to fill the infinitive part).  
This form can take a direct object or do anything that a finite verb  
can do. Here the sense is: "It is necessary to put new wine into fresh  
wineskins" or "One  must put new wine into fresh wineskins."


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






More information about the B-Greek mailing list