Recommended Resources for Grammar Quirks

[SnideSplanchna]

Pretty frequently I'll come across a verse where intended meaning is clear enough, but it has just a little weird thing about it, like the plural subject with singular verb at the end of John 5:36, [works] [testifies]. Sometimes I can poke around in a commentary and find it mentioned, but often not, because it doesn't matter for the scope of their work.

But I'm curious. Any resources that point out and explain grammar quirks, colloquialisms, idiolect, etc? (Or forums where I'm more likely to find this kind of information?)

 

[EvanF]

Well, considering how many translations there are, it would be difficult to compile such a resource; and considering that all the translations are the work of men, sometimes what look like grammar discrepancies are just that.

For example, I note that in the ASV, John 5:36 is rendered,

"But the witness which I have is greater than that of John; for the works which the Father hath given me to accomplish, the very works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me."

with the plural verb "bear" coordinated with the plural subject "works". This seems also to be the case with the most favored Greek texts, which coordinate the plural verb "μαρτυρεῖ" with the plural subject "ἔργα".

I'm not sure which translation you use, but it might be interesting to learn if it is a revision of an older translation and to see if the same discrepancy exists in the older translation.

 

[EvanF]

I found the same discrepancy you mention in an online version of Benjamin Wilson's Emphatic Diaglott translation, which was prepared as a literal English gloss alongside a critical Greek text.

John 5:36-37 I but have the testimony greater of the John; the for works, which gave to me the Father, that I might finish them, these the works, which I do, testifies concerning me, because the Father me has sent.

 

[SnideSplanchna]

Well, considering how many translations there are, it would be difficult to compile such a resource; and considering that all the translations are the work of men, sometimes what look like grammar discrepancies are just that.

For example, I note that in the ASV, John 5:36 is rendered,

"But the witness which I have is greater than that of John; for the works which the Father hath given me to accomplish, the very works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me."

with the plural verb "bear" coordinated with the plural subject "works". This seems also to be the case with the most favored Greek texts, which coordinate the plural verb "μαρτυρεῖ" with the plural subject "ἔργα".

I'm not sure which translation you use, but it might be interesting to learn if it is a revision of an older translation and to see if the same discrepancy exists in the older translation.

Thanks for the reply! No translations. As you said, this bit has no significant variants. And all major translations will swap the verb out for the one that works in the receptor language.

It’s an interesting grammar quirk though, pairing the plural subject ἔργα with the singular verb μαρτυρεῖ. John also uses the same form with “John” in 1:15, τοῦτο in 3:32, and ἄλλος (sort of) in 5:32. But then he does the same weird thing with ἔργα/ταῦτα in 10:25.
So I get to wondering: Is this just a John thing? Does anyone else do it anywhere (NT or elsewhere)? Is it because of ἔργα? Or because it’s neuter? . . .

I come across these things frequently, and all I can do is wonder and move on, but I figure there’s people out there who know this stuff, and somewhere someone has compiled a book or website. I just don’t know where to look.

 

[EvanF]

Thanks for the reply! No translations. As you said, this bit has no significant variants. And all major translations will swap the verb out for the one that works in the receptor language.

It’s an interesting grammar quirk though, pairing the plural subject ἔργα with the singular verb μαρτυρεῖ. John also uses the same form with “John” in 1:15, τοῦτο in 3:32, and ἄλλος (sort of) in 5:32. But then he does the same weird thing with ἔργα/ταῦτα in 10:25.
So I get to wondering: Is this just a John thing? Does anyone else do it anywhere (NT or elsewhere)? Is it because of ἔργα? Or because it’s neuter? . . .

I come across these things frequently, and all I can do is wonder and move on, but I figure there’s people out there who know this stuff, and somewhere someone has compiled a book or website. I just don’t know where to look.

Oh I see what you mean about the Greek. I was completely mistaken about the grammatical label of that verb. Well then please disregard everything I said.

 

[MW]

The Baylor Handbooks do this. They are quite handy. Daily Dose of Greek went through John, and often picks up this kind of thing, but I can't recall if they touched on this particular case.

This "quirk" might be a constructio ad sensum, or construction according to sense. The author is thinking of the collective testimony of the works as a single, unified witness. Or it could be the law of attraction, where the verb is attracted to the nearest conceptual noun. So the verb agrees with the witness as an overarching concept rather than the grammatical subject. Then there is always the possibility of Semitic influence.

 

[EvanF]

I have read that the Greek neuter gender developed from a class of collective nouns and that this accounts for neuter plurals taking a singular verb in older usage, although later usage regularized this.

below is a source that explains this rule.

Third Declension Nouns: Feminine and Neuter – Ancient Greek for Everyone at Duke

Feminine Nouns and the Definite Article I. Feminine Nouns In our last lesson, we learned endings for nouns that were masculine. Now we add nouns that are…

pressbooks.pub

"3. Whenever any NEUTER noun is the subject of a verb, the verb is regularly 3rd PERSON SINGULAR, even if the neuter subject is plural! The reason seems to be that neuter plurals were originally conceived to be collective nouns (S 958), much as the words army and team are collective nouns in English."

 

[MW]

"3. Whenever any NEUTER noun is the subject of a verb, the verb is regularly 3rd PERSON SINGULAR, even if the neuter subject is plural! The reason seems to be that neuter plurals were originally conceived to be collective nouns (S 958), much as the words army and team are collective nouns in English."

That would make it a rule, not a quirk. It would mean the NT is a mix of the classical rule with a new pattern. So the inclination to one or the other would depend on the author's habits. In some ways this might be preferable because it would take away the propensity to create new grammar which yields new meaning.

I can recall reading something about this in Proto-Indo-European, that the neuter was not originally about things so much as collectives and abstractions. But I wouldn't be able to trace the argument beyond that. It is out of my league.

 

[CJW]

Greek Grammar by Smyth, article 958 “A neuter plural subject is regarded as a collective, and has its verb in the singular. Note: the neuter plural seems to have been originally in part identical in form with the feminine singular in (alpha), and to have had a collective meaning.”

Greek Grammar by Herbert Weir Smyth, 1984, Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674362500.

 

[SnideSplanchna]

The Baylor Handbooks do this. They are quite handy. Daily Dose of Greek went through John, and often picks up this kind of thing, but I can't recall if they touched on this particular case.

Oh wow. Baylor Handbooks: never has a $1500 impulse buy been so tempting. Daily Dose of Greek and Hebrew archives mostly cover what I was looking for though. Thank you!

 

[paranymph]

Similar to Baylor Handbooks is the series Exegetical Guide to the Greek New Testament.