Syntax Search Question

Clint Cozier

I'm working with Matthew 1:20. I'm interested in the last clause: γὰρ ἐν αὐτῇ γεννηθὲν ἐκ πνεύματός ἐστιν ἁγίου.  Here the predicate ’εστιν gets intertwined with the prepositional phrase and the genitive modifier.I know that the structure bothered enough scribes that variants did arise to clean it up a bit. How would one go about a syntax search to find other places where predicates get tangled with adjunct clauses? I try to avoid syntax searches where things get tangled up....I've never really understood how to work with them. 

Thank you for any light you can throw my way.

Dave Hooton

Here the predicate ’εστιν gets intertwined with the prepositional phrase and the genitive modifier.

This involves working with a Gap term to identify "intertwined" relationships. In the sense of Matt 1.20, the Predicate verb is in a "gap" of the Prepositional Phrase. Note that the dotted line means "skip intervening levels" which avoids being precise with the position of the target term.