Re: M.Pol. 2:1

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Wed Feb 02 2000 - 08:55:42 EST


At 7:47 AM -0600 2/2/00, Carl W. Conrad wrote:
>At 8:28 AM -0500 2/2/00, Bart Ehrman wrote:
>> In the Martyrdom of Polycarp 2:1 we read DEI GAR EULABESTEROUS hHMAS
>>hPARXONTAS TW QEW THN KATA PANTWN ECOUSIAN ANATIQENAI, which translates as
>>something like "And we who are sufficiently reverent must attribute the
>>ultimate authority to God." But most translations appear to take the
>>EULABESTEROUS hHMAS hRARXONTAS adverbially "We must reverently/devoutly
>>attibute..."
>>
>> Any comments/reflections/advice?
>
>Offhand, I would think that taking EULABESTEROUS adverbially is probably
>right; I would expect to see hHMAS TOUS EULABESTEROUS hUPARCONTAS if the
>phrase were in fact attributive: "we who are more reverent"; as it stands,
>particularly with EULABESTEROUS in an emphatic position in front of hHMAS
>and close to the beginning of the sentence, I'd think that the phrase
>EULABESTEROUS hHMAS hUPARACONTAS ought to mean either "if we are more
>reverent" or "because we are more reverent." At any rate, that's what I
>think.

I realize that I didn't quite finish what I think should be said about
this; although I'm for understanding EULABESTEROUS hUPARCONTAS
predicatively (adverbially) with ANATIQENAI, I think it would be wrong to
ignore the force of the participle hUPARCONTAS, to which, after all,
EULABESTEROUS is indeed a predicate adjective--so it is in fact the whole
phrase EULABESTEROUS hUPARCONTAS that I would understand as qualifying
ANATIQENAI adverbially: "we, being more reverent, ought to attribute ..." =
"we, because/since/if we are more reverent, ought to attribute ..."

-- 

Carl W. Conrad Department of Classics/Washington University One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018 Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649 cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu

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