tions when the antecedent is a person. sitions does not refer to persons: Which with prepo Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served thee. Gen, 30:26. The Lord before whom I walk will send his angel with This is the law of him in whom is the plague of leprosy. There be just men unto whom it happeneth according to Wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Jude 1:13. 5. Whom in ἀπὸ κοινοῦ: 6. How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy whom the Lord hath not defied? Num. 23:8. Who with antecedent in possessive: I would lead thee and bring thee unto my mother's house, who would instruct me. Songs 8:2. Laid it upon Ephraim's head, who was the younger. Gen. 48:14. Am I in God's stead who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb? Gen. 30:2. CHAPTER VI SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD The use of the subjunctive in the King James Version is characterized by great looseness and irregularity due to the unfixed state of English syntax during the period from which the English Bible drew its idiom, 1535-1611. By 1611 the use of may, might, would, and should, as auxiliaries to express the subjunctive, was almost as fully developed, though not so prevalently used, as today. The Bible, while showing a marked preference for the old direct subjunctive forms on account, no doubt, of their brevity, archaic dignity, and more popular sound, nevertheless admitted the newer periphrastic forms in practically all constructions requiring subjunctive. This freedom of choice, practiced in a work so authoritative and so widely and thoroughly disseminated as the authorized Bible, doubtless did much to preserve the old as well as to propagate the new forms in the subsequent development of the language. Although in the natural levelling of inflections, the place of the old one-word subjunctive forms has been practically occupied by the auxiliary or periphrastic forms in plain English of today, nevertheless the old forms are still permissible and not rare in some kinds of writing, especially poetry This preservation of two styles of subjunctive is a distinct advantage to the language. The tendency, which is now well developed, to substitute the indicative outright for the subjunctive appears just incipient in the King James Version, which no doubt has thrown the weight of its influence against this tendency. The commonest verbs, such as be, go, and do, use the subjunctive almost invariably, though even with them an indicative form is sometimes seen masquerading where a subjunctive would be expected and might seem more regular. Such substitution often seems merely a matter of caprice, some ences. times of euphony, and sometimes the result of particuar influNo absolute rules can be laid down for the practice. The examples given below show the principal usages and constructions in which the subjunctive appears, under the following heads: 1. Subjunctive in conditional sentences. 2. In concessions. 3. 4. In temporal clauses with a sense of suspense. 5. In consecutive clauses. 9. 10. In main clauses. "As it were", "if it were." 1. Subjunctive in conditional sentences. A. In unreal conditional sentences, the subjunctive is regular in the protasis and often appears in the apodosis also, though usually displaced in the latter by a periphrasis with would or should. A periphrasis rarely displaces the subjunctive in the protasis of an unreal condition. (a) Subjunctive in protasis: If thou do these things, shew thyself to the world. Tell the stars, if thou be able to number them. Gen. If the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt offering at our hands. Judges 13:23. (b) Subjunctive in apodosis: If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? 1 Cor. 12:17. If we had been sold for bondmen and bond women, I had held my tongue, Esther 7:4. If thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. John 11:21. (c) Subjunctive in protasis: The verb be in the protasis of unreal conditions is regularly subjunctive. Less common verbs, however, on which the subjunctive has a weaker hold, sometimes permit the indicative: Jesus answered and said unto her, if thou knewest the Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. Why dost thou as if thou hadst not received it. 1 Cor. 4:7. In these cases the indicative form may have displaced a regular subjunctive on account of the proximity of the pronoun, thou, which, of course, in the vast majority of cases required the second personal ending st in the verb. In such case the indicative form is used in obedience to the law of analogy and for the sake of sound, the influence of person being stronger than that of mood in determining the form of the verb. The subjunctive is clearly losing ground and the cases of indicative forms in subjunctive territory, quoted above, are sporadic lapses in favor of the new tendency*. There is a feeling also in each case that the tense of the verb, whereby the unreal significance is conveyed, carries something of a subjunctive effect without the subjunctive form. *The verb have, also, which appears in two of the examples quoted above, was wavering between the habits of the independent verb, which it had been, with full subjunctive forms, and an auxiliary verb, which it was fast becoming, with none but indicative forms. As the auxiliary of the perfect tenses it later displaced be with many verbs, witness: the verb come, which in the Bible occurred with be, as in, is come, was come, etc., but now uses has come, had come, etc. As it gained in strength as an auxiliary verb, it lost the power of an independent verb to conjugate in the subjunctive. Though in the Morte d'Arthur, have stood alone with be as an B. In ideal and anticipatory conditions, where nothing is implied as to reality or unreality, the mood of verbs varies between the subjunctive, the periphrasis with auxiliaries, and the indicative. The subjunctive mood, however, rules. The following examples show the different modes of expression: (a) Subjunctive mood in ideal conditions: If thou be the Christ tell us plainly. John 10:24. If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews. If the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not If a man love me, he will keep my words. John 14:23. If a woman have conceived seed. Lev. 12:2. I will give you for your cattle, if money fail. Gen. 47:16. If thou be a great people, then get thee up to the wood country exception to the tendency toward the disuse of the subjunctive, (Baldwin, Inflections and Syntax of Malory's Morte d'Arthur), the following examples show how in Bible English it was wavering between the fully conjugated independent verb and the subjunctiveless auxiliary: But if the ox were (subjunctive) wont to push with his horns in time If no man have (subjunctive) lain with thee, and if thou hast (indic- and if thou be (subj.) defiled, and some man have (subj.) lain with thee beside thine husband If the witness be (subj.) a false witness and hath (indic.) testified falsely Sir, if thou have (subj.) borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him. John 20:15. |