[B-Greek] Use of TO with Infinitive
Carl Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Wed Jan 5 08:42:51 EST 2011
On Jan 5, 2011, at 8:16 AM, Adrian Clark <bgreek at global4.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
> Hello Everyone,
>
> I keep coming across a construction using TO + infinitive, and I am not sure what difference the article makes to the meaning compared to using the infinitive on its own. Some examples would be:
>
> TO MH hUPERBAINEIN.... (1Thess4:6)
> ....EIS TO AGAPAN ALLHLOUS (1Thess4:9)
> ENDEIGMA THS DIKAIAS KRISEWS TOU QEOU, EIS TO KATAXIWQHNAI.... (2Thess1:5)
> EIS TO MH TACEWS SALEUQHNAI.... (2Thess2:2)
>
> Would somebody please be kind enough to explain to me what difference the use of the article makes to the meaning?
The article turns the infinitive into a substantive that can more readily be used as the subject or object/complement of a verb or preposition (EIS TO KATAXIWQHNAI, EIS TO AGAPAN, EIS TO MH SALEUQHNAI), or you may see the genitive TOU EIDENAI, TOU GNWNAI used as an expression of purpose ("in order to know"). The usages of what is thus called the "articular infinitive" are many and various and are ordinarily discussed in the standard grammars (A.T. Robertson, p. 1062, Wallace, p. 610, etc.).
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
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