[B-Greek] Circumstantial Participle
Elizabeth Kline
kline_dekooning at earthlink.net
Wed Mar 12 13:15:17 EDT 2008
Bryant,
You wrote:
>
>>
> A question came up about the circumstantial participle especially
> with relation
> to Eph 4:8-9 and how it would be understood by Greek speaker of the
> 1st century.
> The circumstantial participle functions as the verb of a
> subordinate clause,
> and, for this reason, we can translate it as a finite verb whose
> clause is
> introduced by the subordinating temporal conjunction "when."
>
>> DIO LEGEI,
> ANABAAS EIS hUPSOS hHXHMALWTEUSEN AICHALMWSIAN,
> EDWKEN DOMATA TOIS ANQRWPOIS.
> TO DE ANEBH TI ESTIN, EI MH hOTI KAI KATEBH EIS TA KATWTERA [MERH]
> THS GHS;
>
>> Are we correct in assuming that the participle should be
>> understood in this way?
>
Perhaps, but I agree with R.Buth
> [RB]
>
> The first point to notice is that such a speaker would not describe
> the
> Greek in English. Nor feel a need to "restructure" in another
> language.
An English rendering with two finite verbs in their own clauses is
not a faithful representation of what is going on in the Greek
syntax. I may be an acceptable translation but that is beside the point.
>
> They would certainly feel the 'demoted relationship' between the
> METOXH and the ORISTIKH, and be aware that the author could have
> chosen two ORISTIKAI verbs, but chose not to. English readers need
> to remember that their desire to translate into English or to
> ennunciate
> the relationship between the two verbs is specifying something that
> the
> Greek speaker left unspecified.
I find that the meta language "METOXH and the ORISTIKH" does not help
me understand what R.Buth is saying. I am assuming that Buth and
Levinsohn are "on the same page" more or less. Turning to Levinsohn:
2000 pages 181-183 we find that pre-nuclear participle clauses are
broken down by case, the genitive absolute (GA) and the nominative
participle clause (NPC). The GA has a switch reference function, the
subject of the GA is typically not the subject of the nuclear clause.
By contrast the subject of a NPC is often the subject of the nuclear
clause.
In terms of text linguistics, participle clauses have a backgrounding
function. R.Buth "They would certainly feel the 'demoted
relationship'..."
So Paul's citation places ANABAAS EIS hUPSOS in the background ...
R.Buth again:
>
> You might also note that Paul puts the first event ANABAS into a
> demoted METOXH role, while my text of the LXX at hand has made
> the opposite choice and has indicative ANEBHS 'you went up' while
> putting AIXMALWTEYSAS into the demoted role.
> The Greek writers simply choose how they want to present these
> two events with the same doer,
> as two finite verbs?
> as two finite verbs with a subordinate relation specified?
> as one finite verb and one demoted
> participle with the relation unspecified?
> With the last structure the Greek speaker is marking one of the
> events as the main point of reference, "home", the finite verb. And
> Paul's text or memory may have been different from our old Greek
> since he quotes a METOXH "ANABHSAS" but uses it as his point of
> reference and then quotes it as a finite verb, (though TO ANABHNAI
> would have worked as well, since an infinitive would have been
> sufficient to serve as a reference to the event.)
>
> There is also a subtle difference in scope that is caused by choosing
> one structure or another. By having 'capture' as the main verb,
> Paul's presentation of the 'capture' extends to including the 'going
> up', while the old Greek of Psalms does not necessarily include
> the 'going up' as part of the process of 'capture'.
>
> Anyway, the above may sound confusing or difficult
> because it is linguistics, it is talking about the language,
> language turned in on itself (metalanguage)
> and mostly in a foreign language (English),
> though a description in Greek would be equally linguistic, and
> potentially conplicated, by its 'being turned in on itself'.
>
I agree with R.Buth (assuming I understand what he is saying??) that
a rewrite in English with two finite verbs isn't going to help a
student of NT Greek understand what is going on in the greek text.
Yet another example why translation exercises are an impediment to
learning the language.
Elizabeth Kline
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