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Friday, November 14, 2008

Further uses of the accusative: as the subject of an infinitive

We've actually met another use of the accusative already, in Matthew 1:18:

3) The accusative is used as the subject of an infinitive.

(Greek grammarians will tell you that, technically, the accusative here is not a true subject; it only seems like it is. But never mind.)

First of all, what is an infinitive? In English, it is the form of the verb using the word 'to':

to walk
to sleep
to circumnavigate

We use it in constructions such as

Peter doesn't want to take the bus to school, he wants to walk.
I tried to warn him.
She reads the newspaper to keep up with world events.

In English, we generally find the infinitive as a compliment, or explanation of the primary verb:
Peter wants something - what? He wants to walk, not to take the bus. I tried - what? I tried to warn him.

In the third example the use is slightly different. She reads the newspaper - why? In order to keep up with world events. Here the infinitive gives a reason for the action of the first verb, and in this kind of use the sentence still makes sense if you add the words 'in order' before the infinitive.

The infinitive is much used in koine Greek for similar constructions: here is John the Baptist, giving a warning (Matthew 3:7):

Γεννήματα εχιδνών,
Offspring of vipers

τις υπέδειξεν υμίν φυγείν από της μελλούσης οργής;
who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

In other words, who warned you - what? Who warned you to flee?

But the infinitive is also used in constructions which don't correspond so neatly to English. One of these is the construction we saw in Matthew 1:18:

πριν ή συνελθείν αυτούς
before they were married

This is an example of a temporal clause introduced by the conjunction 'πριν' (or, in this case, the variation 'πριν ή'). The conjunction 'πριν' can be followed by an infinitive, with the general meaning of 'before (an action happens)', the action being expressed by an infinitive.

In the example from Matthew 1:18 above, the action is 'were married', and is expressed by the infinitive of the verb συνέρχομαι, which is 'συνελθείν'.

And now we arrive, finally, at our accusative: as was mentioned earlier, in the discussion of this verse, the subject of 'were married' ('συνελθείν') is Mary and Joseph, 'they'. The form of 'they' used here is the accusative plural, 'αυτούς'; thus we have an accusative subject of the infinitive.

Χαίρετε!

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