[B-Greek] Use of TO with Infinitive
Bill Yates
bill.yates4 at btinternet.com
Fri Jan 7 07:23:09 EST 2011
As a 'Lurker' who is unable to contribute with my limited knowledge of Classical Greek and virtually none of Koine Greek this highlights [for me anyway] perhaps the most interesting question of translation/interpretation:
How can we arrive at a translation which most nearly represents what the original author intended? It seems an impossible question to answer, at least from my very limited knowledge base.
I'm sure the more educated and expert contributors to this forum will have a different view. Is there such a thing as a 'catalogue' which tells us which NT/Septuagint texts are universally accepted and those which are more in dispute?
Many thanks
Bill Yates
> 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:
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