[B-Greek] Mt 9:27

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Mar 3 16:32:52 EST 2004


At 8:55 PM +0000 3/3/04, D Jongkind wrote:
>Carl W. Conrad wrote:
>> As Arie noted previously, there's nothing extraordinary at all about this,
>> and a genitive absolute would never be expected under such circumstances
>> when the circumstantial participle can be construed with an essential
>> element in the clause, "And when he left from there, two blind men
>followed
>> Jesus."
>
>Is it really true that one would <never> expect a genitive absolute under
>similar circumstances as in Mt 9:27?
>
>Just a brief glance in Matthew yields at least four examples:
>
>Mt 8:1 KATABANTOS DE AUTOU APO TOU OROUS HKOLOUQHSAN AUTWi OCLOI POLLOI
>
>Mt 8:5 EISELQONTOS DE AUTOU EIS KAFARNAOUM PROSHLQEN AUTWi EKATONTARCOS
>
>Mt 8:28 KAI ELQONTOS AUTOU EIS TO PERAN EIS THN CWRAN TWN GADARHNWN
>UPHNTHSAN AUTWi DUO DAIMONIZOMENOI
>
>Mt 9:18 TAUTA AUTOU LALOUNTOS AUTOIS, IDOU ARCWN EIS ELQWN PROSEKUNEI AUTWi
>
>I happily agree that perhaps the 'better' form of the constuction is found
>in 9:28, but the construction in 9:27, though perhaps not extraordinary, is
>not a completely normal circumstantial participle construction either with
>both TW IHSOU and a resumptive AUTWi:
>
>Mt 9:27 KAI PARAGONTI EKEIQEN TW IHSOU HKOLOUQHSAN [AUTW] DUO  TUFLOI
>
>By the way, Matthew does the same in 8:23, but then with two times AUTWi:
>
>Mt 8:23 KAI EMBANTI AUTWi EIS TO PLOION HKOLOUQHSAN AUTWi OI MAQHTAI AUTOU

Dirk, there are several questions that can be asked but not so easily
answered about these constructions, among them:

(1) To what extent is Matthew reformulating/redacting an earlier version of
any one of these traditions? --but that question involves assumptions which
are out of place in this forum;

(2) To what extent does Semitism influence the formulation of either the
tradition employed by Mt or Mt's own formulation?

(3) To what extent is the genitive absolute employed where it is
stylistically questionable but has become a relatively uncomplex method of
formulating subordinate clauses without having to tie them into the syntax
of a complex sentence? My own take on this is that the construction with
the subordinated circumstantial participle in the dative is better
stylistically; it's very common in Latin prose: quaerenti mihi haec
respondit amicus meus: "When I put this question, my friend answered me ..."

Perhaps I ought not to have written that we shouldn't expect a genitive
absolute under similar circumstances as in Mt 9;27; certainly you've shown
that they do occur. My own sense is that this is Hellenistic laxity;
certainly the genitive absolutes are intelligible in such circumstances;
they just don't seem very elegant.
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/



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