[B-Greek] Double Negation with Subjunctive

Tim Davis jttyger at yahoo.com
Fri Jan 4 10:00:33 EST 2008


I was taught to not never use a double negative in
Elementary School grammar classes, but in reading
through Matthew 5 today I noticed three instances of
two negative particles OU MH used with a subjunctive
verb.  

Matt 5:18

IWTA hEN H MIA KERAIA OU MH PARELQH APO TOU NOMOU

Matt 5:20

OU MH EISELQHTE EIS THN BASILEIAN TWN OURANWN

Matt 5:26

OU MH EXELQHS ...

Upon attempting to look at this construct further,
this looks to be fairly common in the Greek NT (esp in
the Gospels and Revelation), and I assume it simply
stronger negation than simply using MH with the
subjunctive (though the "literal" translations I
checked didn't seem to attempt to reflect that).  

As for my questions:

1.  Is the OU MH construct generally understood to be
a more forceful negation?

2.  If the subjunctive is thought to be the "mood of
possiblity," then may OU MH + subj be understood to
rule out said possibility?  

3.  It looks like I should "expect" a subjunctive
after a OU MH.  If I do not find one (e.g., John 10:5
- OU MH AKOLOUQHSOUSIN), is there some different
nuance I should grasp?  

Thanks,
Tim Davis
Birmingham, AL


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