Verb – Elusa active subjunctive

ObjectivesLearning objectives

The semantics of the word μηδείς compared with οὐδείς
The morphology of the Elusa active subjunctive
The complexive use of the aorist to refer to a state’s endpoint

VocabularyVocabulary

Greek	Gloss	Part of speech	Paradigm
μηδείς, μηδεμία, μηδέν	no one/nothing	negator pronoun	26.4.3.1
τὸ μνῆμα, -ατος	the tomb	noun	B.a.γ.i(a)
περισσεύω τινά	(I) oversupply something/one (acc)	verb	C.a.α
ὁ μαργαρίτης, -ου	the pearl	noun	B.a.α.iv
ἱκανός, -ή, -όν ποιεῖν	sufficient to do	adjective	A.a.α
ὑποτάσσω σοί τινα	(I) subject you (dat) to something/one (acc)	verb	C.a.ζ

Noteμηδείς

μηδείς ‘no one’ is similar to οὐδείς in that it negates a pronoun. The difference between the two is predictable – where you would expect to find μή, you have μηδείς, and where you would expect to find οὐ, you have οὐδείς:

Example 287In ἵνα clause

ἵνα μηδενὶ λέγωσιν (Mark 7:36)

That they speak to no one

Example 288Bare subjunctive

μηδενὶ εἴπῃς (Matt 8:4)

You should not tell anyone

Example 289In participle clause

μηδενὶ κακὸν ἀντὶ κακοῦ ἀποδιδόντες (Rom 12:17)

Repaying no one evil for evil

The dative and nominative forms of μηδείς are the most common, but any case and gender are possible.

MorphologyMorphology: Verb – Elusa active subjunctive

The augment, which marks tense, disappears because the subj only combines with aspect.
The endings are identical to the Luo act subj (see 29.3.4.1).
Instead of -σα-, only a σ is added before the endings.
Be careful: the 1s form σαλεύσω is identical to the 1s Luso form.

Morphology: Verb – Elusa active subjunctive

	Singular	Plural
1st	σαλεύ-σ-ω	σαλεύ-σ-ωμεν
2nd	σαλεύ-σ-ῃς	σαλεύ-σ-ητε
3rd	σαλεύ-σ-ῃ	σαλεύ-σ-ωσι(ν)

SemanticsSemantics: Verb – Aorist (6 – Complexive)

Verb – Aorist: all 7 parts on one page →Also in Lesson 11.1, Lesson 12.1, Lesson 14.1, Lesson 21.1, Lesson 24.2, Lesson 26.2

States do not have a temporal boundary (see Semantics C). On the other hand, we have consistently described the Aorist as having a boundary in some way, such as when the end of an event is referred to. This creates a mismatch between the meaning of states and the meaning of the Aorist. In fact, the prototypical state εἰμί ‘to be’ is not found in the Aorist for this very reason – since the Aorist requires a boundary and εἰμί has none, it is only found in the Eluon form.

However, the Aorist can combine with a state to refer to its beginning in the inchoative use. Can the Aorist also refer to the end of a state when something in the context specifies that the state has an endpoint? Indeed, it can. We call this use the complexive interpretation of the Aorist, an example for which is found at the end of the Sadducees’ story about the brothers who died with the same wife and kept passing her on to the next brother in line:

Example 290Complexive Aorist

πάντες γὰρ ἔσχον αὐτήν (Matt 22:28)

For all had her

We know from the context that to ‘have her’ means to have the woman as a wife until a certain endpoint, namely each brother’s death, so the Aorist is being used to refer to a state with a specified endpoint.

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