Conditional clauses without εἰ?

Greek Learning Greek
1

Although the below sentence is Koine, I’m posting it here as I have a more general question concerning this type of sentence:

κατατρύφησον τοῦ κυρίου καὶ δώσει σοι τὰ αἰτήματα τῆς καρδίας σου (Psalm 36:4)

In English Bibles, this verse is generally translated as “Take delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart” (NIV) or something simlar. In English, this sounds like a conditional expression e.g.:

(protasis) If you take delight in the Lord
(apodosis) then He will give you the desires of your heart

The Septuagint Greek however doesn’t have an εἰ in it so it’s (formally) not a conditional clause, and the Cambridge Grammar doesn’t give any examples of expressions of condition without εἰ in them. So my questions are:

  1. Are sentences that express a result based on a condition (like “do this and this will happen”) common in Classical Greek? If so, what are they called if not conditional clauses? Is there a reference somewhere in Smyth to constructions like this?

  2. Ignoring English Bibles (which probably translate the Hebrew here, not the Greek) how would a Greek speaking person (who didn’t know Hebrew) in Hellenistic times actually understand this Greek sentence? My own guess is that he would read it as “Enjoy the Lord! He is going to give you whatever you request!” which sounds more like a promise than a conditional expression.

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance :slight_smile:
–Mitch

1 Like
2

This is weird, I posted this to the Learning Greek forum but it got put into the Koine and Medieval Greek forum. How come?

–Mitch

3

Sentences like this are not grammatically conditional but may be effectively so. They’re common in all European languages at least. “Seek and ye shall find.” “Be a good boy and I’ll give you a treat"; contrast “Don’t be a bad boy or I’ll give you a smack.” The first half is an imperative rather than an if-clause.

4

I’ll put it back in the other category. Some classical examples:

Plato: Σμικρὸν λαβὲ παράδειγμα, καὶ πάντα εἴσῃ ἃ βούλομαι.

Xenophon: Ἐρώτα γοῦν καὶ ἀποκρινοῦμαι.

A couple with γάρ:

Demosthenes: καί μοι λαβὲ τουτουσὶ τοὺς νόμους καὶ ἀνάγνωθι· φανήσεται γὰρ τούτων οὐδὲν πεποιηκώς.

Homer: μηδέ τις ἱπποσύνῃ τε καὶ ἠνορέηφι πεποιθὼς / οἶος πρόσθ’ ἄλλων μεμάτω Τρώεσσι μάχεσθαι / μηδ’ ἀναχωρείτω· ἀλαπαδνότεροι γὰρ ἔσεσθε.

5

And of course participles, while not explicitly conditional, are often invested with conditional force, in both Greek and Latin. τοιαῦτα τἄν γυναιξὶ συνναίων ἔχοις (Aesch.Sept.195) “Such things you’d have if you lived among women.”
In Greek this is made clear by the negative, μή rather then ου. (And note the use of μὴ οὐ at e.g. Soph.OT 221 οὐ γὰρ ἄν μακράν | ἴχνευον αὐτό, μὴ οὐκ έχων τι σύμβολον, “for I wouldn’t … if I didn’t have a σύμβολον.”)

6

And of course participles, while not explicitly conditional, are often invested with conditional force, in both Greek and Latin. τοιαῦτα τἄν γυναιξὶ συνναίων ἔχοις (Aesch.Septem 195). In Greek this is made clear by the negative, μή rather then ου. (And note the use of μὴ οὐ at e.g. Soph.OT 221 οὐ γὰρ ἄν μακράν | ἴχνευον αὐτό, μὴ οὐκ έχων τι σύμβολον, “for I wouldn’t be tracking it far if I didn’t have a σύμβολον.”)