Koine and Biblical and Medieval Greek • Re: Trouble understanding a specific passage in Gregory Palamas

This sort of thing is anathema to me. And why do theologians have to be so very nasty to one another? But I’m trying to understand the syntax along with the sense, starting from ταύτης τοίνυν οὕτω συναιρομένης (6 lines up from end). There it looks to me as if οὐκ ἄδηλον ὑφ᾽ ὅτου κεκινημένης (?“moved it’s clear who by”, elliptical) is effectively parenthetical, leaving the two present-tense genitive absolutes in parallel with one another (ταύτης τοίνυν οὕτω συναιρομένης … καὶ δαψιλῆ σοι ποριζούσης δαπάνην)—but you translate it differently.
Then we have a pair of main clauses, οὐ πρὸς τοὺς θεολόγους μόνον καὶ τοὺς αὐτοῖς ὁμολόγους ἀκήρυκτον ἀνερρίπισας πόλεμον ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ θεῖα πάντα πολέμια δεῖξαι πρὸς ἑαυτὰ διὰ σπουδῆς ἔθου—but again you don’t translate them as such.
And appended to these a set of participial phrases (first a pair, then a trio), plus a final jab (ὡς ... διαδείκνυται).

Now, your bolded passage. προθυμουμένης and αἱρουμένης are both present tense, and μηδε … μηδε doesn’t quite mean “neither … nor.” But more substantially: I take it that τοὺς ὅταν ἐκλίπῃ προσδεξομένους αὐτὴν (ἀπὸ τῶν ἐνταῦθα φίλην γεγενημένην) is the direct object of ποιεῖν, while ἑαυτῇ φίλους is its predicate: she doesn’t choose to make those who will receive her when she passes (…) friends for herself (i.e. she doesn't choose to make friends of those who will receive her ....) but the expelled Barlaamites instead.

I don’t know if that helps at all. It is all a bit tricky.

Statistics: Posted by mwh — Fri May 31, 2024 1:29 am

---