Working out the rusty hinges...

Greek Koine and Biblical and Medieval Greek
1

Hello all,

I’m glad to have found this wonderful resource. As of late, I’ve rekindled my interest in Koine Greek, and have been going through an old textbook (An Introduction to New Testament Greek, Huber Drumwright) and was trying to work through an excersise which has stumped me. Here it is…

[size=134]προφήτης προφήτῃ λέγει εἰρήνην[/size]

I get that [size=134]προφήτης[/size] is Nom Sing. Subject. “Prophet.”

The [size=134]προφήτῃ[/size] is Dativ… indirect object (I’m most unsure about this one). Also “prophet.”

Of course, [size=134]λέγει[/size] is PresActInd 3rd Sing, the verb. “he speaks,” or “he is speaking.”

Then the [size=134]εἰρήνην[/size] which looks ACC Sing, Direct object… “Peace.”

I can’t for the life of me cobble this phrase into an intelligible sentence.
Any hints or tips would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

2

I believe you already have it; you just don’t know it.

The prophet speaks peace to the (other) prophet.

:slight_smile:

3

Thanks so much for the quick reply!

4

I guess εἰρήνην translates simply “shalom”, thus “how do you do ?”. :wink:

5

actually, I don’t think that’s what’s implied. There is kind of a strange thing that goes on when they talk about prophets… it’s more like “the message he gave was one about peace”. It seems common for a prophet to “speak judgment” or “speak peace”, etc.

6

Hello, klewlis !

A search on the site “The Unbound Bible” did not show any phrase such as [size=134]εἰρήνην λέγειν[/size]. Most passages show ordinary uses of [size=134]εἰρήνη[/size], such as “to make peace”, “to give peace”, “to go in peace”,…

[size=134]προφητεύειν εἰς εἰρήνην[/size] (Jeremy 28:9, but 35:9 in the LXX) means “to prophesy peace”.

We find also passages where [size=134]εἰρήνη[/size] makes up phrases meaning “to ask how somebody is doing”, namely [size=134]ἐπερωτᾶν[/size] or [size=134]ἐρωτᾶν τινα εἰς εἰρήνην[/size] . Here, [size=134]εἰρήνη[/size] seems to denote the (hoped for) “fair state” of somebody or something :

1 Samuel 10:4 [size=134]καὶ ἐρωτήσουσί σε τὰ εἰς εἰρήνην καὶ δώσουσί σοι δύο ἀπαρχὰς ἄρτων[/size]
“They will ask you how you are doing and will give you two pieces of bread.”

2 Samuel 11:7 [size=134]ἐπερώτησεν δαυιδ εἰς εἰρήνην ιωαβ καὶ εἰς εἰρήνην τοῦ λαοῦ καὶ εἰς εἰρήνην τοῦ πολέμου[/size] “David asked (him) for news of Joab and for news of the people and for news of the war.”

[size=134]εἰς εἰρήνην τοῦ πολέμου[/size] : what a phrase !

7

hmmmm… apparently I need to investigate whence I got this notion. :slight_smile:

8

I think the most common greeting for Koine would be simply XAREIN…either XAREIN SOI, or XAREIN hUMIN…that is “grace to you”, or in Southern Greek “Grace to y’all” :laughing:

9

Yeah! :confused: :smiley: :laughing: :unamused:

Tolstoy should have known this for his book “War and News”, er, is it “War and Peace”?