Double accusative or error in book? αυτὸν

Greek Learning Greek
1

I’m having trouble with why αυτὸν is in the accusative in this sentence. Is it some sort of double accusative that I’m not making sense of with ποιεῖν, or is this a misprint in the book and so should it be αὐτοῦ? This is from Chapter 18 of John H. Dobson - Learn New Testament Greek, 3rd Ed.

Ἤγγικεν ἡ βασιλεὶα τοῦ θεοῦ. ὃς ἂν θελῃ τὸ θέλημα > αὐτὸν > ποιεῖν, πιστευέτω τῷ Ἰησοῦ.



Whoever wants to do his will, let him trust in Jesus.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/kzsk14tbf7h987q8iq1n7/Screenshot-2024-07-15-at-8.56.05-PM.png?rlkey=pgdhycat0p93ky8avqhae4xji&dl=0

I tried to upload an image of the text, but I guess the administrator has image upload / attachments turned off? I pointed it to a link of the image in my dropbox, but that didn’t preview correctly…

2

It looks to me like the same question that, coincidentally, mwh answered yesterday on another thread:

http://discourse.textkit.com/t/the-function-of-in-this-sentence-puzzles-me/20817/2

3

It looks to me like the same question that, coincidentally, mwh answered yesterday on another thread:

http://discourse.textkit.com/t/the-function-of-in-this-sentence-puzzles-me/20817/2

4

I think it’s a mistake. Here is what seems to be the original source of this sentence:
John 7:17 ἐάν τις θέλῃ τὸ θέλημα αὐτοῦ ποιεῖν.

I hope this helps.

5

Yes, tico and pheriwinkle are right, it must just be a mistake in the book for τὸ θέλημα αὐτοῦ, “his will” (lit. “the will of him”).

[τὸ θέλημα αὐτόν would mean “the will itself”, αὐτόν neuter in agreement with θέλημα, but that’s obviously not what’s meant. The phrase in the sentence that BrianB links to was μετὰ τὸ γεννῆσαι αὐτὸν τὸν Σάλα, where αὐτὸν is the subject of γεννῆσαι and τὸν Σάλα the object. That’s quite different from what we have here.]

6

Little detail: the neuter form is αὐτό (αὐτόν is Accus. Masc.): τὸ θέλημα αὐτό

Tico

7

True, but also αὐτόν. See LSJ

αὐτός (Cret. ἀϝτός GDI 4976, al.), αὐτή, αὐτό (also αὐτόν Leg.Gort. 3.4, al.),

8

But in how many places is that the case?

9

It’s commoner than you might think. LSJ’s “al.” covers a multitude. LSJ also recognizes ταὐτόν as an alternative to τὸ αὐτό.

But anyway, τὸ θέλημα αὐτὸν is obviously just a mistake in the book, presumably a typo.