[B-Greek] Articular infinitives: distinguishing subjects from objects

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Thu Nov 27 21:57:42 EST 2008


On Nov 27, 2008, at 7:58 PM, George F Somsel wrote:

> I haven't checked every instance to see whether this is the only  
> type of situation in which this occurs, but it is evidently not the  
> case that an accusative immediately following an articular  
> infinitive is the subject when the infinitive is a passive.
>
> 12καὶ ἐν τῷ κατηγορεῖσθαι αὐτὸν  
> ὑπὸ τῶν ἀρχιερέων καὶ πρεσβυτέρων  
> οὐδὲν ἀπεκρίνατο.
> 12 KAI EN TWi KATHGOREISQAI AUTON hUPO TWN ARXIEREW KAI PRESBUTERWN  
> OUDEN APEKRINATO
>
> Mt 27.12
>
> Here the accusative AUTON is the object of the infinitive rather  
> than the subject which is relegated to a prepositional phrase hUPO  
> TWN …  If this were expressed in the active [ignoring the temporal  
> element] it would be something like

Quite honestly, I don't understand this. I certainly would have said  
(and would say) that AUTON is indeed the subject of the infinitive  
KATHGOREISQAI

> οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς καὶ οἱ πρεσβύτεροι  
> ἐκατηγησάν αὐτόν
> hOI ARXIEREIS KAI hOI PRESBUTEROI EKATHGHSAN AUTON

Perhaps you intended to write
> οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς καὶ οἱ πρεσβύτεροι  
> κατηγόρησαν αὐτόν
hOI ARCIEREIS KAI hOI PRESBUTEROI KATHGORHSAN AUTON.

AUTON is indeed the object of the active construction (re- 
construction?), but in Mt 21:12 AUTON is the SUBJECT of the passive  
infinitive KATHGOREISQAI.

> ________________________________
> From: Kenneth Litwak <javajedi2 at yahoo.com>
> To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2008 10:32:13 PM
> Subject: [B-Greek] Articular infinitives: distinguishing subjects  
> from objects
>
>   Articular infinitives, like all infinitives, of course take  
> subjects in the accusative case.  For example, we have Matt 13;4  
> with a "circumstantial" articular infinitive:
> EN TW SPEIREIN AUTON ("while he sows/was sowing*")
>
>   My question is whether every accusative that immediately follows  
> an articular infinitive must be the subject and if not, how does  
> know that it is the direct object instead?  For example, Heb 8:3  
> would seem to follow the articular infinitive with a direct object:
> PAS GAR ARCIEREUS EIS TO PROSFEREIN DWA TE KAI QUSIAS ("every high  
> priest in order that he might offer gifts and sacrifices")
> Are there any rules that can be applied to determine whether what I  
> find is a subject or an objectg?  This case _seems_ easy because I  
> think I know that gifts and sacrifices would not make sense as the  
> subject of the articular infinitive. Is that the only rule, that the  
> sentence only makes sense if one takes the accusative as the subject  
> or the direct object?  I'd like a better guideline than that because  
> one person's "that makes sense" is another person's "what were  
> thinking?" as anyone can tell by comparing any two commentaries.   
> Thanks.
>
> Ken
>
> * I've been pondering whether we should translate present tense  
> verbs in narratives as "historical presents" or not.  Could it be  
> that we do the gospel writes, especially Mark, a disservice by  
> destroying the vividness of the text by changing the tense to a past  
> tense?  I don't think that all Greek narrative is written in the  
> present tense like this, so its use has to be deliberate.
>
>
>
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Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)






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