[B-Greek] APHGGELH and LEGONTWN in Luke 8:20
Carl Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Sat Feb 5 17:45:35 EST 2011
On Feb 5, 2011, at 5:34 PM, Daniel Buck wrote:
> I've got a grammar question here.
>
> In Luke 8:20, it is said of Jesus APHGGELH DE AUTW (And it was reported to him).
> The construction of APHGGELH is singular, but does that assume a singular person
> doing the reporting? OOW, if several people were saying it, would APHGGELH have
> to take a plural form?
>
> To complicate matters, most manuscripts add LEGONTWN (some further add OTI).
> This is in the plural, thus answering my question--or so it appears.
>
> But does the omission of LEGONTWN (saying) only make the plurality of the
> speaker(s) less blatant, or remove all certainty? Any further speculation, of
> course, should be confined to a different list.
Luke 8:20 ἀπηγγέλη δὲ αὐτῷ· ἡ μήτηρ σου καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοί σου
ἑστήκασιν ἔξω ἰδεῖν θέλοντές σε.
[APHGGELH DE AUTWi· hH MHTHR SOU KAI hOI ADELFOI SOU
hESTHKASIN EXW IDEIN QELONTES SE.]
APHGGELH is passive; the subject is the whole clause,
hH MHTHR ... QELONTES SE. One might have expected a hOTI
introducing this clause, but it is clearly the content of what those
bringing the message to him reported. There's no indication at all
of the person or persons bringing the report, but PROS AUTOUS in
the next verse indicates that it was more than one.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
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