


31.228 Questions Expecting a "Yes" or "No" Answer

Please make sure you read Croy section 228. Here Croy explains how the words οὐ and μή can be used in Greek to anticipate the answer to a yes-or-no question. A question which expects a positive answer can contain the word οὐ, while a question expecting a negative answer can contain the word μή.

Here is an example from a Biblical passage:

James 2:14

Τί τὸ ὄφελος, ἀδελφοί μου, ἐὰν πίστιν λέγῃ τις ἔχειν, ἔργα δὲ μὴ ἔχῃ; μὴ δύναται ἡ πίστις σῶσαι αὐτόν;

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Thtat faith cannot save him, can it? (answer: no!).

You can see here how being able to skew a question so that it anticipates a yes answer or a no answer is a powerful rhetorical technique. This is an important feature of Biblical Greek to keep in mind whenever you come across a yes-or-no question.


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