[B-Greek] Luke 17.6 AN = contingency?

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Wed Feb 13 05:16:12 EST 2008


On Feb 13, 2008, at 1:21 AM, Mitch Larramore wrote:

>
> EIPEN DE hO KURIOS EI ECETE PISTIN hWS KOKKON SINAPEWS
> ELEGETE AN THi SUKAMINWi TAUTHi EKRIZWQHTI KAI
> FUTEUQHTI EN THi QALASSHi KAI hUPHKOUSEN AN hUMIN
>
> How does AN change ELEGETE and uUPHKOUSEN had they not
> been there? Doesn't AN make the verbs somewhat more
> contingent on something? Almost as if, "you shall
> say..." to "it is possible you could say..." Or, not
> "it will obey you" but something like "perhaps it will
> obey you." (I think of AN as converting an Indicative
> expression/command closer to a Subjunctive.)

You should learn to expect AN in conditional constructions and learn  
to distinguish the conditional constructions. AN used with the  
imperfect and aorist indicative is regular in the result clause of  
contrary-to-fact conditions: 'If you DID have faith (but you don't),  
you WOULD be saying ... "


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






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