[B-Greek] EAN MH and/or searching in Logos4
Stephen Carlson
stemmatic at gmail.com
Sun Mar 13 18:28:09 EDT 2011
2011/3/13 Jeffrey T. Requadt <jeffreyrequadt_list at hotmail.com>:
> I'm trying to learn more about the use of εαν μη EAN MH. I have run across a
> passage in which some interpreters/translaters take it as a simple contrast,
> i.e. "but" in English. I have the print edition of BDAG, so I can't copy and
> paste, but it only gives the sense of "if not, unless, without." I would add
> "except" to that list in certain contexts. The passage I am looking at
> (which I don't want to name simply because it has some emotionally-charged
> theological opinions attached to it) has EAN MH followed by a prepositional
> phrase. My question for the general list is, are there any concrete examples
> in Koine Greek of EAN MH being used to contrast things rather than as a
> condition or an exception. The condition/exception seems to me to be the
> most normal for EAN MH, so that's why I'm looking for concrete examples of
> when that would not work or be natural.
There has been written a fair amount of literature on the EAN MH in
Gal 2:16. I would recommend consulting it.
A helpful discussion along the lines you seem to be interested in is
Debbie Hunn, "Ἐὰν μή in Galatians 2:16: A Look at Greek Literature,"
Novum Testamentum 49 (2007), 281-290, even though on this question I
tend to side with Jimmy Dunn's understanding of it as "except" rather
with Hunn's understanding of it as "but."
Stephen Carlson
--
Stephen C. Carlson
Graduate Program in Religion
Duke University
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