[B-Greek] Mt 9.18a Indefinite articles

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Wed Mar 19 06:09:04 EDT 2008


On Mar 18, 2008, at 5:12 PM, Tony Pope wrote:

> Carl Conrad has mentioned that hEIS was in the process of coming  
> into use as
> an indefinite article. And Steve Runge has given a helpful  
> introduction to
> the intricacies of introducing participants to a narrative. But I am  
> not
> sure that Mitch's question has entirely been answered.
>
> Essentially it is Matthew who uses hEIS as an indefinite for  
> introducing
> participants rather than the TIS that it is used in other gospels.  
> But why
> does Matthew introduce some of those who come to Jesus with hEIS,  
> such as
> ARCWN hEIS (9.18) and hEIS (19.16), and others with no indefinite at  
> all,
> such as hEKATONTARCOS (8.5), PARALUTIKON (9.2), ANQRWPOS (17.14),  
> not to
> mention others that are qualified by an adjective or similar?
>
> Some readers will put such variations down to "style" and leave it  
> at that.
> But my interest in details makes me look for a more complete answer.  
> Is
> the author signalling that these particular stories are more  
> important to
> his theme than the others, on the principle that the more unusual the
> linguistic signals used the more significant the content? Or could  
> it be
> that hEIS is used for people who were important in the society of  
> the day
> but who the author did not wish to name? (The man in 19.16 is the  
> "rich
> young ruler".)

Questions are asked here, and perhaps they are more than rhetorical --  
but I am not convinced that there are clear and straightforward  
answers to these questions. This indefinite usage of hEIS is not  
restricted to Matthew; I'd have to see some convincing evidence and  
argumentation that the indefinite usage of TIS and hEIS has some  
distinct semantic differentiation. I haven't done a search for hEIS  
vs. TIS in the gospels, but the entry on hEIS/MIA/hEN in BDAG (3.)  
shows instances in both Mark and Matthew and indicates that this is  
not a Semitic usage. I should think there may be as much intentional  
differentiation between second aorists conjugated with -O- endings and  
those conjugated with -A- endings (e.g. Lk 1:59 HLQON (3 pl.), Lk 2:16  
HLQAN (3 pl.).

> On Mar 16, 2008, at 11:20 PM, Mitch Larramore wrote:
>
>
> TAUTA AUTOU LALOUNTOS AUTOIS IDOU ARCWN hEIS ELQWN
> PROSEKUNEI AUTWi LEGWN....
>
> To take ARCWN hEIS as "one leader" seems awkward in
> this context. I note many translations prefer "a
> leader/ruler." It would seem then that this is pretty
> clearly to be taken as an indefinite article. Why,
> since this indefinite use was readily available to
> first century Greeks, did they use it in only rare
> instances? Obviously ARCWN itself could have been
> used, but at the risk of it being understood as
> Monadic or Well-Known, etc. As it is quite obvious
> from my questions, I only can "think" in English so
> many of my questions come from how an American in the
> 21st century looks at things. But it just seems like
> having a sure-enough indefinite article would come in
> rather handy now and then.
>
> Mitch Larramore
> Sugar Land, Texas
>
>
>
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Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)






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