Andley_BG4e/Syntax/syntactic ambiguity.md

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1 Cor. 6.4 βιωτικὰ μὲν οὖν κριτήρια ἐὰν ἔχητε, τοὺς ἐξουθενημένους ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ, τούτους καθίζετε
Discussed in this forum in 2018:
[https://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/forum/vi ... f=6&t=4353](https://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4353)
2 Cor. 10.7 τὰ κατὰ πρόσωπον βλέπετε
There are commentators who read this as an exhortation (Face the obvious facts), others as a statement (You pay attention to outward appearances), and yet others as a question (Is it outward appearances that you pay attention to?).
Matt. 8.7 ἐγὼ ἐλθὼν θεραπεύσω αὐτόν
Punctuated in the editions as a statement, but a fair number of scholars regard it as a question. Discussed in this forum in 2009. [https://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/b-g ... 48604.html](https://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/b-greek/2009-March/048604.html)
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Luke 18:11
ὁ Φαρισαῖος σταθεὶς πρὸς ἑαυτὸν ταῦτα προσηύχετο Ὁ θεός εὐχαριστῶ σοι ὅτι οὐκ εἰμὶ ὥσπερ οἱ λοιποὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἅρπαγες ἄδικοι μοιχοί ἢ καὶ ὡς οὗτος ὁ τελώνης.
I think this is ambiguous - it could mean either that he was standing by himself ("σταθεὶς πρὸς ἑαυτὸν") or that he was standing and speaking to himself as he prayed ( σταθεὶς ... πρὸς ἑαυτὸν ταῦτα προσηύχετο).
Further on Luke 18.11,
> [Stephen Carlson](https://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=63&sid=4b5887cf0313b4c2d14d3a32da7be0c9) wrote: [↑](https://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/forum/viewtopic.php?p=37859&sid=4b5887cf0313b4c2d14d3a32da7be0c9#p37859)June 10th, 2022, 10:55 amIn this case, I suspect the information structure/prosody for this verse will not be ambiguous however. The cataphoric ταῦτα would have to be in focus, which means that we would expect the intonation unit to begin there, making πρὸς ἑαυτόν part of the preceding unit with σταθείς as a backgrounded constituent.
If we want to construe πρὸς ἑαυτόν with σταθείς, what does it mean? For years I assumed it must mean "he stood by himself", but I have not found any parallels for that, whereas καθ' ἑαυτόν is used several times in LXX in that sense, not to mention elsewhere. I wonder whether an early reader reading the sentence would in fact connect σταθείς and πρὸς ἑαυτόν together, unless we invoke a solution based on Aramaic à la C. C. Torrey.
If on the other hand, the intonation unit could start with πρὸς ἑαυτόν it would seem to make sense with the main verb προσηύχετο, either as praying with reference to himself or praying in his mind, both options that have been suggested for the variant reading in which πρὸς ἑαυτόν follows ταῦτα.
Is it a no-no to have an intonation unit πρὸς ἑαυτὸν ταῦτα προσηύχετο?
[source](https://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=5598#top "Top")