Hello, in Hermas Sheperd (Vision I), we find the following verse "διαβὰς οὖν τὸν ποταμὸν ἐκεῖνον ἦλθον εἰς τὰ ὁμαλά, καὶ τιθῶ τὰ γόνατα καὶ ἠρξάμην προσεύχεσθαι τῷ κυρίῳ καὶ ἐξομολογεῖσθαί μου τὰς ἁμαρτίας". Could you please explain to me the meaning of the subjonctive for "τιθῶ τὰ γόνατα" / i kneeled while the rest of the verse is at the indicative mood? Thank you very much. David
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Hello! I believe I have a solution to your question.
Bishop J.B. Lightfoot translated the passage you quote as follows: "When then I had crossed the river, I came into the level country, and knelt down, and began to pray to the Lord and to confess my sins."
The reason Lightfoot can translate τιθω as a present indicative verb rather than as a subjunctive, is that there was an alternative form of τιθημι spelled τιθεω in the uncontracted first-person singular present active indicative. This is the form you saw, in its contracted form τιθω.
In his book, An Exegetical Grammar of the Greek New Testament, W. D. Chamberlain observes that "there was a gradual process throughout the history of the Greek language of replacing [μι-verbs] with ω-verbs" (87). Given that Hermas was written many decades later than the New Testament, it makes sense that an alternative thematic form of τιθημι should appear in its text, while not being used in the NT. (BDAG mentions the existence of the later form, since it covers both NT and patristic Greek; while some NT-only lexica do not.)
A parallel case to τιθημι/τιθεω is that of the verb 'ιστημι, which had the alternative lexical form 'ιστανω in the present active indicative, demonstrating the regularization process which Chamberlain spoke of.
I hope this post has been of help!