Biblical Greek - Lesson 32

Dr. Bill Mounce
Biblical Greek
nt201-32
Infinitive
Lesson Transcript

[00:00:01] Well, today we're in chapter 32 and we're going to learn the infinitive. If you can get this, you're pretty much home free. Wow. Slight overstatement, but you're a good way there. All right. What's an infinitive? Well, then, infinitive is a verbal noun. A participle as a verbal adjective. The infinitive is a verbal noun. In other words, however, you form an infinitive. And however you're going to translate it. Infinitive. You need to remember, first and foremost, that it is performing a substantive function. It's a verbal noun. And so in English we would say, to study is my highest aspiration. Well, we'll just pretend it is. To study is an infinitive. You form an infinitive in English by taking a verb and putting the word two in front of it. But you can see in this sentence that to study, there's your infinitive is performing. What function in the sentence. It's a subject, isn't it? If you were to say I began to sweat when the teacher walked by to sweat is another substantive function. It's completing the idea of the verb, isn't it? I began. I began what I began to sweat. My favorite hobby is to eat. To eat. Is performing. What function in the sentence is a pretty good nominative, isn't it? So an infinitive. What we form in English with two in the verb is performing basic substantive functions. When we get into Greek. Same thing. Infinitives are verbal nouns. They are in decline of all. Yeah. No case, No number. Now, sometimes there's an article attached to an infinitive. And when there is, it's always neuter. Now, that's not always the case, but when there is an article, the infinitive is viewed as a neuter construction, but basically it's in decline able.

[00:02:20] And the normal way to translate them in Greek is simply to say, to add the verb. Now we're going to fine tune that a bit, but for the most part, when you see infinitive, you'll say two and then take the meaning of the verb and stick it after it. So it's not that hard for the most part, but we're outside of the indicative verbal system. So guess what went bye bye. No, no time at all. The only significance is aspect. And there's three infinitives because there's three aspects. So the infinitive that's built on the present tense stem is going to be indicating a continuous action. The infinitive built on the arrows ten stem is indicating an undefined action and the infinitive built on the perfect ten stem as indicating a completed action. Now, what you're going to find is that it's almost impossible to bring the present tense nuance, the continuous aspect into English. Very rarely is this done, but that's why we have preachers. I have tried and tried and tried to find a way to simplify infinitives. In other words, to not have you simply to memorize things. I can't find it. Maybe someday some will come up with one. But this is one of the few paradigms that you're simply going to have to learn. These are all the infinitive morphemes with the tense formative. It's kind of important to see the tense formative. Now, there is some consistency, isn't there? What do most of the infinitives end in the Alpha Yoda? And you'll notice that in the present and in the perfect, the middle and passive of the same form. You would expect that just from the tense system. They'll. Right. So you have an essay in essay. If it's a first errors you have say source three and say no.

[00:04:20] If it's a second verse, you'll notice in the active a middle, it's going to look just like a present. The stem will be different though. Ane and se sti. But when you get into the passive, you have the energy. There's the aid of the transformative. And then in the perfect, you have Kenny and then Sly. Sly. You're just going to have to commit this to memory, as far as I can tell. The problem is I could say, Well, if it ends and I'll Fiona's probably an infinitive. But the problem is sometimes these forms can get kind of get buried down on a verse and they won't stand out as much to you that it's an infinitive and you can get lost. So you probably you just need to memorize this. So let's just quickly play our little guessing game. If you saw Lon Bonnin. What tense is that? It has to be the present, right? Because that's the present tense stem of the word Lombardo. So you would pass this as a present active infinitive from Lombardo meaning to receive. Luci. There's an earnest active infinitive from Luo meaning to loose. You notice what's missing. All right. We're outside the indicative system. There's no augments in the earth. Luci. Present. Middle or passive infinitive. From Luo and these we just generally translate in our passings as passives to be loosed. Lobbying. Right. There's your. But you have the lab stem, the Mu Alpha news gone. You're outside the present system Without the augment, you know, you're in the arrests. So it's an arrest. Active infinitive from long or translated. To receive. In other words, LAMB, Bonnin and Le Bahn are generally going to be translated the same way. I mean, if you want to distinguish the present, you can do it something like to continue to receive, which is what it means.

[00:06:38] It's just horrid English. Let CanI. Perfect active infinitive from Luo to. Have loosed. It's pretty straightforward what, you know, your earnings now that you're used to putting verbs together, it'll make pretty good sense. Just real quickly so you can actually see the endings hooked on the paradigmatic forms the prison infinitive, lu ane lu sty and lu usto the arrest infinitive in the active. It's the first arrow stem. It's Luci. If it's a secondary stem, it's been in the middle lu source. They le bsi and in the passive it's luthien I graphene I It is so much more fun in Greek not to memorize all these paradigms, but rather to be able to see how pieces fit. And what you're doing now is you're really enjoying the benefit of the way I've been teaching you, because instead of just learning forms, it's all making sense, or at least some sense in how it all goes together and in the perfect or the completed infinitive Luchini let loose. They let loose they. Okay, so housing infinitive used in Greek. Let me give you just the three main ones. The textbook gives you a few more. The most basic function of the infinitive is as a straight substantive. So if you saw tar as a eston Augustan, it'd be. To eat is good. I must have been hungry when I made these slides. That's the most basic form. The second use, though, is probably the most common. What we call the complimentary infinitive. And all that this does is that there are certain verbs that are not complete in and of themselves in terms of their meaning. And so they have to be followed with by an infinitive in order to make sense. So for example, day, which means it is necessary, exists in which means it is lawful and mellow, which means I am about.

[00:08:57] None of those verbs make sense without something to complete their thought. And Greek uses the infinitive to complete their thought. These are the really easy infinitives to translate, so they obtain is the aim. It is necessary for her to eat. It is lawful for him to eat. I am about to eat. Can you see how the infinitive It's this natural to use the infinitive in Greek and in English in this case. The third use is called the articular use of the infinitive. And this is the one that might cause a little bit of problem if you don't recognize what's going on. Actually, it's not the articular uses the articular with a preposition. Here's what happens when you have one of these six constructions where you have a preposition and your definite article, which will be neuter and an infinitive and normally a word in the accusative. That's the construction right there. This is a special kind of idiom in Greek, and it kind of defies some of the rules you're used to. And so on your vocabulary cards, you need to make six separate vocabulary cards for these six constructions. That's how important it is to recognize these. Here's what's happening. When you have, for example, DIA. Normally DIA with the accusative is on account of that's not what it means in this construction. When you have DIA followed by the articular infinitive, it means because now here's the other kind of interesting twist. C Alten in the accusative that's acting as if it were the subject of the infinitive. So if you saw a digital blip in our time, you would translate it because he sees, Oh, this is an idiom. We don't have the same construction in English. And so you have to flex a bit in the translation.

[00:11:02] So deal with the particular infinitive means because and the word in the accusative is acting as the subject of the infinitive. And so it's because he sees a star blip in our time, as with the articular infinitive means in order that in order that he sees cross also means in order that with the articular infinitive, in order that he sees. You can see the problem, can't you. The because in the in order that our definitions that we attach to the prepositions only when they are followed by the articular infinitive, you also have three temporal prepositions. And these are a little more apparent. Proverb means before end means or while. And the term means after. So it's before he sees. While he sees. After he sees. Now you notice the case of the article is changing depending upon what preposition, isn't it? So the preposition is still governed. Or in the case of its object. Here in this case, it's the article. Before he sees. While he sees. After he sees. Okay, so these are a special idiom in Greek. They are the preposition with the particular infinitive. And you're going to have to be a little looser in your translation.