[B-Greek] Question about Luke 19:8
Carl Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Tue Jan 22 10:21:29 EST 2008
On Jan 22, 2008, at 9:35 AM, Will Dilbeck wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> This is my first post, but I was really perplexed about this.
>
> The verbs DIDWMI and APODIDWMI are both present active indicative.
> However,
> the commentators were unanimous in saying that Zaccheus was
> demonstrating
> repentence here, and basically saying that he was guilty, and that he
> intended to pay everyone back. If this was the case, would the
> verbs not be
> in the future tense or subjunctive mood?
The subjunctive would not be used in any case unless it's in a
dependent clause that's dependent upon some other element, as, for
example, ARA BOULHi hINA DIDWMI ... "Do you want me to give ...?" (=
"Do you want that i should give ... ").
The present tense is not uncommonly used to indicate an intention that
is not immediately in process. Compare the English, "I'm going to town
today" -- which does not mean that the speaker is currently on the
road. If you Englished the Greek of Lk 19:8 as "Hey, I'm giving half
of my stuff to the poor, and if I've cheated anyone, I'm giving it
back quadruple," would that not be intelligible English to express the
intention to carry through with this assertion. This is rather like
the administration and politicians talking about the tax rebate
they're "putting in our hands" -- sounds like it's coming next week or
even today, but don't look for it right away!
> The verse is below and thanks in advance.
>
> *Luke 19:8* staqei.j de. Zakcai/oj ei=pen pro.j to.n ku,rion\ ivdou.
> ta.
> h`mi,sia, mou tw/n u`parco,ntwn( ku,rie( toi/j ptwcoi/j
> di,dwmi( kai. ei;
> tino,j ti evsukofa,nthsa avpodi,dwmi tetraplou/nÅ
You pasted the text in, but didn't have the UTF-8 encoding, so it
doesn't show up properly. This is precisely why we ask list-members to
add a standard BG transliteration. It should be:
Luke 19:8 σταθεὶς δὲ Ζακχαῖος εἶπεν πρὸς
τὸν κύριον· ἰδοὺ τὰ ἡμίσιά μου τῶν
ὑπαρχόντων, κύριε, τοῖς πτωχοῖς
δίδωμι, καὶ εἴ τινός τι
ἐσυκοφάντησα ἀποδίδωμι τετραπλοῦν.
STAQEIS DE ZAKCAIOS EIPEN PROS TON KURION: IDOU TA hHMISIA MOU TWN
hUPARCONTWN, KURIE, TOIS PTWCOIS DIDWMI, KAI EI TINOS ESUKOFANHTSA
APODIDWMI TETRAPLOUN.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
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