[B-Greek] hINA in Jn 9:3, 11:4

Elizabeth Kline kline_dekooning at earthlink.net
Tue Feb 3 13:59:38 EST 2009


>

Iver,

Thank you for the paper, I have read it and will read it again.


On Feb 2, 2009, at 9:27 PM, Iver Larsen wrote:

> That hINA in the above examples from John do not indicate purpose is  
> not an insight based solely on
> Relevance Theory.
> It is recognized now by most Greek scholars that hINA in Koine Greek  
> is basically a consecutive
> marker that can indicate purpose, result or content, almost like the  
> infinitive. In Classical Greek
> it was often, but not exclusively, used for purpose. Some scholars  
> have wrongly assumed that what
> applied to Classical Greek also applies to Koine Greek, and this has  
> caused misunderstandings and
> indeed mistranslations of hINA in most English bibles.


>
> I do not currently have access to Margaret's thesis (poor internet),  
> so I do not understand what she
> means by "representation".

M. Sim's position in regard to hINA  is somewhat more radical than  
yours. She claims that hINA in the Koine period had become  
semantically empty. In other words, the normal procedures for  
analyzing polysemy and proposing a taxonomy of different meanings  
based on usage in different contexts is, according to Sim, NOT the  
correct approach for hINA in the Koine period. She claims that hINA in  
the Koine period served as a marker to indicate that what followed was  
a presentation of a thought or speech. When combined with a following  
subjunctive verb hINA also indicated a potential state of affairs. The  
advantage of this construction over an infinitive construction was the  
ability to communicate mood (potential state of affairs) and to encode  
person and number.

In Relevance Theory (RT) terms hINA was underdetermined, a colorless  
particle without any logical function or semantic significance. Sim  
rejects any attempt to present a taxonomy of 'meanings' or logical  
functions for hINA in the Koine period as  a misguided adventure, a  
failure to appreciate the shift from the Classical usage to the Koine.

This is my paraphrase of a case that was developed in nearly 300 pages  
of Sim's thesis, so obviously it isn't going to be a totally adequate  
reflection of her ideas.

One aspect of Sim's thesis which becomes most apparent after reading  
the whole paper, is that Sim argues against a position that virtually  
no one holds, the idea that the 'basic meaning' of hINA in the NT is  
represented by the English gloss "in order that". This is a straw man.  
Also she uses BAGD rather than BDAG as her lexical point of reference.  
The article for hINA in BDAG has some subtle but important changes  
which she doesn't take into account.

More on this later. For those with broadband, the best idea is to get  
thesis and read it. This is not your typical PhD thesis. It is the  
work of someone who has upwards of forty years of professional  
background in Classical and NT Greek, translation, linguistics and so  
forth. A serious paper  indeed.


Elizabeth Kline







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