[B-Greek] 2COR. 11:1 MOU & AFROSUNHS
Carl Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Mon Jan 4 17:06:14 EST 2010
On Jan 4, 2010, at 4:52 PM, Elizabeth Kline wrote:
>
>
> 2Cor. 11:1 Ὄφελον ἀνείχεσθέ μου μικρόν
> τι ἀφροσύνης· ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀνέχεσθέ
> μου.
>
> 2COR. 11:1 OFELON ANEICESQE MOU MIKRON TI AFROSUNHS· ALLA KAI ANECESQE
> MOU.
>
> Two questions, the first on syntax ...
> There has been some disagreement about how to construe the first MOU
> here, either with the verb directly (H.Alford) or with MIKRON TI along
> side of AFROSUNHS (H.A.W. Meyer) or with AFROSUNHS (M.E.Thrall) . And
> then we have ALLA KAI ANECESQE MOU which is a little cryptic. Do we
> supply a substantive e.g., AFROSUNHS and attach MOU to the substantive
> or attach MOU directly to the verb?
>
> ... the second question is about word order ...
>
> M.E. Thrall (2Cor ICC v.2 pp. 658-659 ) suggests that AFROSUNHS is
> "important" because it appears in the middle of the "sense-unit". Not
> sure what to make of that. I have never encountered a linguistic
> argument that the middle of a sentence ("sense-unit"?) is a position
> used to mark an important constituent. On the other hand, AFROSUNHS as
> a clause final constituent might be in some sense marked as
> "important". There is some disagreement about the relative status of
> clause final constituents. Some maintain that clause final position is
> used for focus constituents. I would suggest that AFROSUNHS is in
> focus, so to a certain extent I am agreeing with M.E. Thrall but we
> don't arrive there by the same road.
I confess in advance that my response here will be rather useless if it requires
taking into account arguments such as those you have cited. I'm inclined to
think this word order is more colloquial and emotional than rhetorical.
I just take the text as I see it and it seems to me that MOU must in bo;th cases
depend directly upon the verb: "put up with me" -- "be patient with me."
I rather think that AFROSUNHS is a second genitive with ANECESQE.
"But you really ought to be patient with me a bit -- with my foolishness;
but do really be patient with me."
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
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