[b-greek] Re: TI AKONTES in I Clem 2.3

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Mon Dec 31 2001 - 09:08:50 EST


At 12:22 PM -0500 12/30/01, L. J. Swain wrote:
>Steven Lo Vullo wrote:
>>
>> Hi all:
>>
>> 1 Clem 2.3: hIKETEUONTES AUTON hILEWN GENESQAI, EI TI AKONTES hHMARTETE.
>>
>> I have two questions on this passage.
>>
>> First, would it be better to take TI as the direct object of hHMARTETE
>> ("sinned something/anything," i.e., "committed some/any sin") or as an
>> adverbial modifier ("sinned in some/any way"). Does hAMARTANW ever take
>> a direct object?
>
>More than one question. Yes, hAMARTANW can take the accusative in Greek
>usually a participle defining the sort of sin. In English though the
>verb "sin" is generally intransitive (one could say I sin a sin, but
>that is an unusual case). So your translation of it will have to take
>the TI adverbially in English, though it is a direct object in Greek.
>Think of it this way: If you commit some sin....

I'd quibble just a little bit here; I don't think that the TI is a direct
object in the Greek at all but rather an adverbial accusative in the sense
of "at all." I wouldn't argue with Larry's version, "if you committed some
sin unintentionally ..." But I sometimes wonder whether our grammatical
distinction between an accusative direct object and an accusative in
adverbial sense isn't another instance of reading English distinctions into
Greek usage; in a sense ALL accusatives are adverbial in that they limit
the range of what a verb, adjective or adverb indicates.

>>
>> Second, AKWN is an adjective (AKWN, -OUSA, -ON), but is clearly used
>> adverbially here. But why would it be inflected for case, number, and
>> gender? LS gives the normal adverbial form (AKONTWS), which I would
>> expect when used adverbially. Usually when an adjective is used
>> adverbially it either has the adverbial ending (WS) or is neuter
>> singular accusative in form. Is it at all common for adjectives used as
>> adverbs to be inflected for case, number, and gender?
>
>
>Interestingly enough I ran across a similar use of AKWN this past week
>in I Cor 9:17 where we have to take the two words adverbially, and I
>think this construction also demands in English an adverbial use. But
>in Greek it is an adjective modifying the unexpressed subject. "You
>unwilling...."

I think the standard usage of hEKWN and A(E)KWN is as an adjective
predicatively relating to the subject of the verb; I remember vividly from
decades ago encountering the line of Aeschylus(?) from the Prometheus Bound
where Prometheus asserts: hEKWN hEKWN hHARTON: "I went wrong deliberately,
deliberately!"

LSJ (Perseus) has for hEKWN:

hekôn , hekousa, hekon: (Wek- IG9(1).334.12 (Locr.), GDI5131b (Crete), cf.
gekatha; cf. Skt. vás´mi 'wish'):--readily, Od.4.649, etc.; freq.
contrasted with akôn, he. aekonti ge thumôi Il.4.43 ; ou gar tis me biêi ge
he. aekonta diêtai 7.197 ; hekonth' hekonti Zêni sumparastatein A.Pr.220 ;
pareimi d' akôn ouch hekousin S.Ant.276 ; hekonta mêt' akonta Id.Ph.771 ;
biai te kouch hekôn Id.OC935 ; he. par' hekontos lambanein, i.e. by mutual
consent, D.21.44; tên phusin hekousan kai ou pathousan ta deonta poiein
Gal.19.171 .
2. wittingly, purposely, hekôn d' hêmartane phôtos Il.10.372 , etc.;
sphodr' hekôn . . agnoein prospoioumenos D.29.13 .
3. in Att. Prose (cf. Phryn.241), he. einai as far as depends on one's
will, as far as concerns one, with a neg., Hdt. 7.104, 8.116, Pl.Ap.37a,
al.; also in oblique cases, hupo sou hekontos einai Id.Grg.499c ; or in a
sentence implying a neg., thaumazoimen an ei . . tis hekôn einai (fort.
delendum) . . aphikneitai; Id.Lg.646b: once affirm., hekôn einai . .
oicheto Hdt.7.164 .
II. rarely of things, kaka he. kouk akonta S.OT1230 .
III. for Adv. see hekontên, hekonti: regul. Adv. hekontôs is dub. in
Aristid.2.187, 226J.

--

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad@ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/

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