[B-Greek] Questions

Mark Lightman lightmanmark at yahoo.com
Wed Jan 7 21:51:36 EST 2009


For questions expecting a negative answer the MH will tip you
off since it is not normally used with the indicative.  In most
NT questions expecting an affirmative answer with OU, I think
the context would not make sense if you took it as a declarative
sentence.  Certainly in your example from Mt. 6:25, "The soul is NOT greater
than nourishment" makes no sense, so it has to be a question.
Also in the next verse: OUX hUMEIS MALLON DIAFERETE
 "You don't matter more than sparrows."
has to be "Don't you matter more than sparrows?"
On the other hand, there ARE questions, I think even with OU,
where it is ambiguous whether it is a question or not.  I just can't
think of any right now, and I don't think there are too many, at least
in the NT.  George S. or somebody can probably come up with a 
whole list.
 
Mark  L 

--- On Wed, 1/7/09, Jay Adkins <jayadkins264 at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Jay Adkins <jayadkins264 at gmail.com>
Subject: [B-Greek] Questions
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Date: Wednesday, January 7, 2009, 5:58 AM

Matt 6:25 (GNT) DIA TOUTA LEGO hUMIN MH MERIMNATE TH YUCH hUMON TI FAGHTE [H
TI PIHTE], MHDE TW SWMATI hUMON TI ENDUSHSQE, OUCI hH YUCH PLEION THS TROFHS
KAI TO SWMA TOU ENDUMATOS;

My question is about questions.  When I first read this I overlooked the
punctuation mark at the end and understood it as a statement not a
question.  Are there any clues I am overlooking in determining whether a
sentence is a statement or a question?  In other words, how can one decide a
sentence is a question without the aide of a question mark?  Interrogative
pronouns are often used in sentences as in the verse above.  So what clues
am I missing?

Sola Gratia
Jay Adkins
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