QUESTION
Hi Dennis, What’s the rule for this “if” clause in Mark 8:12? I’m not sure how to translate it.
" καὶ ἀναστενάξας τῷ πνεύματι αὐτοῦ λέγει· τί ἡ γενεὰ αὕτη ζητεῖ σημεῖον; ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, εἰ δοθήσεται τῇ γενεᾷ ταύτῃ σημεῖον."
RESPONSE
This is an elliptical negation. See the non-elliptical Matthew 16:4 parallel. This is the if protasis=condition with an unspoken elliptical “then hell will freeze over” impossible apodosis=consequence=conclusion in an elliptical reductio ad absurdum construction.
Matthew 16:4 (SBL GNT)
Γενεὰ πονηρὰ καὶ μοιχαλὶς σημεῖον ἐπιζητεῖ, καὶ σημεῖον οὐ δοθήσεται αὐτῇ εἰ μὴ τὸ σημεῖον Ἰωνᾶ. καὶ καταλιπὼν αὐτοὺς ἀπῆλθεν.
So the elliptical construction equates logically to an οὐ μή “certainly not” or “No way” denial of the expressed if condition based on the well-known reductio ad absurdum principle that if the conclusion is false and the conditional assertion is true then that proves that the premises=condition=protasis must be false. By Jesus’ day, the Jews had already been exposed to 300 years of Greek logic from their rulers and they already had the aposiopesis im construction from Hebrew (see Robertson’s Word Pictures).
As anticipated by his groan reaction to their deceitfulness, Jesus is giving a sharp answer back to a trap question. “You figure out the obvious conclusion for your selves.” Normally the questioner dominates the dialogue, but Jesus turns the tables. The hypocrites already have plenty of reliable reports of miracles and have proven that they, like Dives’ brothers, would not be converted even if they saw one themselves.
The false elliptical reductio ad absurdum construction is illustrated in Hebrews 3:11 and 4:3, 6:14. The advantage of our project Greek New Testament – Grammatical Commentary (GNT-GC) is that it gives a tour through the GNT of instances of constructions so the student can grasp the gist of them through example.
However, another advantage of GNT-GC is that it outlines the constructions in a way that places them in their larger setting so the learner can get a perspective. With the two attributes (specific grammatical relation and semantic function) there are 18 different constructions in GNT-GC for εἰ. The elliptical negative reductio ad absurdum construction is expanded within the larger elliptical εἰ setting of the interrogative εἰ construction which occurs in Matthew 12:10, 19:3, Mark 2:16, Acts 1:6, 19:2, 21:37 and Romans 2:17. Under this broader interpretation, Jesus is asking, “Do you really think you are going to manipulate me that way into performing a magic trick for your entertainment?”