[B-Greek] Use of TO with Infinitive
Carl Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Thu Jan 6 13:56:59 EST 2011
On Jan 6, 2011, at 11:39 AM, Mark Lightman wrote:
> Gene and Carl did a good job of explaining the construction, but Adrian's
> question was why, in 1 and 2 Thessalonians, the infinitive, in the same
> constructions, sometimes has the article and sometimes does not. I think that
> was a very good question.
>
>
> I reread these two letters yesterday and I noticed the same thing. Sometimes
> the article is there with the infinitive in a given construction and sometimes
> it is not. In general, and certainly in the citations that Adrian gave, I can
> find no real difference in meaning. The article was less common in poetry, so
> I believe that the Greeks were hard-wired to take it or leave it and did so in
> the interest of variety and euphony as much as semantic nuance. Paul probably
> did not even think about it, and so perhaps neither should we.
I really don't quite know what it means to be "hard-wired to take it or leave it" --
but this sounds to me like saying it's altogether arbitrary whether or not an
ancient author should choose to use an article with an infinitive or not: did s/he
flip a coin? did s/he ask, "does it sound better with or without an article?"?
While I think I'd agree that Paul probably didn't even think about it, I would
suppose that he didn't need to think about it because he had a ready command
of which formulations were suitable in particular constructions.
Rather than assume that it makes no difference whether or not an article is
used with an infinitive, I think it would be wise to review what one of the
better Koine grammars has to say about inifinitive usage. I would recommend:
Funk's Beginning-Intermediate Hellenistic Greek Grammar (BIGHG):
Lesson 57: The Verb/Infinitive
THE INFINITIVE: RANGE OF FUNCTIONS
http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/project/funk-grammar/pre-alpha/lesson-57.html
I think too that beginning or intermediate grammars might do well to group together
discussions of such items as, "How is purpose expressed in a subordinate construction?"
Then one might compare and contrast the usages of (1) hINA + subjunctive,
(2) hWSTE + infinitive, (3) EIS TO + infinitive, (4) TOU + infinitive, (5) future
participle ... -- I don't know offhand whether that's exhaustive, but these are common
modes, worth illustrating by exampels readily found throughout the GNT.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
> ________________________________
> From: Gene Cockerham <Gene.Cockerham at ncpres.org>
> To: bgreek at global4.freeserve.co.uk; b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> Sent: Wed, January 5, 2011 8:26:24 AM
> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Use of TO with Infinitive
>
> J Gresham Machen
> Lesson XXII
> Paragraphs 301-305
> In general - the Greek infinitive is a verbal noun and so like any other
> noun can take the article. With an article the infinitive can stand in
> the place of most nouns. "Thus, KALON ESTI TO APOTHANEIN HUPER TWN
> ADELFWN, means the act of dying in behalf of the brethren is good..."
> Here TO APOTHANEIN is a noun in the nominative case, being the subject
> of the verb ESTI."
>
> Sorry for the quoted section - I do not have the experience that many of
> the contributors of this list serve - hopefully someone can expound on
> this if necessary.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
> [mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of
> bgreek at global4.freeserve.co.uk
> Sent: Wednesday, January 05, 2011 8:16 AM
> To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: [B-Greek] Use of TO with Infinitive
>
> 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?
>
> Many thanks
> Adrian Clark
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