[B-Greek] Redundant Words?

Mark Lightman lightmanmark at yahoo.com
Sat Dec 19 17:05:03 EST 2009


---  Mark Spitsbergen  wrote:


<The redundant use of LEGWN in Luke 7:39

"EIPEN EN hEAUTW LEGWN"

I normally think of the redundant use of LEGWN as "he told them  
saying" ex: Luke 12:16  but here and also in Luke 20:2 is it  
functioning as a grammatical marker of sorts?>
 
Hi, Mark,
 
LEGWN of course is a semitism found throughout the
LXX (e.g. Deut 1:9) but like many semitisms something
similar is found already in Homer.  τον δʼαπαμειβομενος
προσεφη TON D'APAMEIBOMOS PROSEFH
 ("answering, he said to him", Iliad 1:130) is
really no different from τον δʼ ημειβετʼ TON D' HMEIBET'
 ("he answered him") (Iliad 1:121) except for the
 meter.   I could give many other 
examples where verbs of saying are repeated for
metrical reasons.  I think this "redundancy" entered
into the language to the extent that even a non-
Semitic Greek would find nothing redundant or
emphatic about an extra participle like LEGWN.
 
Mark L
FWSFOROS




      


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