[B-Greek] Mk 8:12 - ... EI DOQH'SETAI...
Randall Buth
randallbuth at gmail.com
Tue Feb 12 10:48:14 EST 2008
Vasile egrapse
>ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, εἰ δοθήσεται τῇ γενεᾷ ταύτῃ σημεῖον (Mk 8:12)
AMH'N LE'GW hUMI~N, EI DOQH'SETAI THi~ GENEAi~ TAU'THi~ SHMEI~ON. ( (Mk 8:12))
What would be the mechanism of a translator's mind when reflecting a
group of Greek words possibly/forcibly rendered by the English,
"Truely I tell you, if a sign is given to this generation" by, for
instance, "Assuredly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this
generation". (I believe most of the translations would be, to some
extent, similar to this one). I am stressing especially the Greek εἰ
(EI) turned by the translator into the English negative.
My question is, more or less, rethorical - and I have my own
understanding of this -, but I would like to know how/whether such a
construction could be placed into a rigorous pattern with which one
could operate when encountering other situations like this.
Vasile STANCU>
RB: You are dealing with Semitic interference here. The structure
entered the LXX from the Hebrew. I don't think it ever settled into
the Greek system.
It functions whereever one could go on to say 'may I be struck dead',
but doesn't say so. Of course, in the book of Hebrews, the speaker is
God who cannot take such an oath, but the idiom remains an exclamatory
with an implied negative.
--
Randall Buth, PhD
www.biblicalulpan.org
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