to lay hands upon

Jack Kilmon jkilmon at historian.net
Sun Aug 1 15:03:57 EDT 1999




Wieland Willker wrote:
> 
> John:
> 7:30 ezhtoun oun auton piasai kai oudeis
> epebalen ep auton thn ceira oti oupw elhluqei
> h wra autou
> 7:44 tines de hqelon ex autwn piasai auton all
> oudeis epebalen ep auton tas ceiras
> 
> Egerton:
> kai epebalon [tas] cei[ras] autwn ep auton oi [arcon]tes [in]a piaswsin
> kai par[adwsin] auton tw oclw. kai ouk e[dunanto] auton piasai oti oupw
> e[lhluqei] autou h wra ths parado[sews.]
> 
> "And the rulers laid their hands upon him to seize him and hand him over
> to the crowd.
> And they could not take him because the hour of his arrest had not yet
> come."
> 
> What does it mean to "lay hands upon him"? Do they have him physically
> in their hands? I don't think so.

The Semitic idiom "to stretch
out one's hands" against an opponent or to "lay one hands on" an 
opponent is, respectively to attack or to take into captivity such 
as can be found in Lev 16:21, Numbers 8:12 and 2Kings 11:16. There
is precedent in the LXX and Plutarch for KRATEW to "hold in the hand."
I would assume, therefore, that KRATEW is the same as the Hebrewe
byd f// and means the same.

Jack

-- 
______________________________________________

taybutheh d'maran yeshua masheecha am kulkon

Jack Kilmon
jkilmon at historian.net

http://www.historian.net



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