[B-Greek] TI in 1 Cor 3:5
Elizabeth Kline
kline_dekooning at earthlink.net
Thu Jan 31 16:53:59 EST 2008
On Jan 31, 2008, at 12:28 PM, Ian Scott wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> I'm working through 1 Cor 3 with a class and it occurred to me that
> there is an ambiguity in the opening TI of 3:5 that is not usually
> recognized (at least not in the literature I'm familiar with). It's
> usually translated (and accented) as an interrogative pronoun,
> "what?" But could it be a simple indefinite pronoun, "something?"
> In that case we would take TI as the predicate of the clause,
> rather than the interrogative subject. The resulting translation
> would be "Is Paul, then, something (i.e., significant)?" I suspect
> that this is not usually entertained because TI at the opening of a
> question is usually interrogative, but is there any reason it could
> not simply be indefinite? In favor of that reading I notice that
> Paul's statement in 3:7 seems like a direct answer to the question
> of 3:5 - - "neither the planter nor the waterer is anything (ESTIN
> TI) . . ."
>
>
TI OUN ESTIN appears to be a fixed expression:
n. 16: Philo Judaeus Phil., Legum allegoriarum libri i-iii, Book 2,
section 36, line 2,
TI OUN ESTIN hO BOULETAI PARASTHSAI;
n. 8: Aristoteles et Corpus Aristotelicum Phil., Metaphysica, Bekker
page 1045a, line 14
TI OUN ESTIN hO POIEI hEN TON ANQRWPON ...
n. 4: Plato Phil., Amatores [Sp.], Stephanus page 133, section c,
line 3,
TI OUN ESTIN; EFHN EGW
n. 5: Plato Phil., Spuria, Stephanus page 372, section a,bis, line 3,
TI OUN ESTIN; - TI GAR ALLO GE H TA NOMIZOMENA DIKIA;
These are just a few examples.
Elizabeth Kline
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