Acts 17:27

clayton stirling bartholomew c.s.bartholomew at worldnet.att.net
Thu Jun 10 16:51:04 EDT 1999


I have run into a few difficulties in Acts 17:27-28 with regard to 
rendering gender in Codex Bezae (D).

Acts 17:27-28a  D reads

MALISTA ZHTEIN TO QEION ESTIN
EI ARA GE YHLAFHSAISAN AUTO H hEUROISAN,
KAI TE OU OU MAKRAN ON AF' hENOS hEKASTOU hHMWN.

EN AUTHi (AUTWi) GAR ZWMEN KAI KEINOUMEQA KAI ESMEN . . .

My first problem is TO QEION ESTIN. Ropes, Barrett, Fitzmyer all seem to
throw out ESTIN. But a translation of D (?author?) renders this: "that
which is divine." If Barrett is correct and ESTIN is an attempt to
follow the latin of D, the perhaps ESTIN should just be ignored.  In
that case TO QEION ESTIN  could be rendered "the deity" but that only
solves the first problem.


Afer TO QEION ESTIN the following AUTO and ON are both neuter. This
raises the question in my mind: how impersonal is this TO QEION ESTIN?
And what do we do when we reach the first part of verse 28? Do we return
to a personal (him/her) or do we translate AUTWi as IT?

If we read the context the neuter TO QEION ESTIN seems out of place, but
the agreement of AUTO and ON indicate that it was not just a slip but
intentional. So how should I handle the change from HIM (17:26) to IT
(17:27) and then back to HIM in verse 28?

Understand that I am translating the Mars Hill discourse from D to show
how it differs from the received text (NA27). I am not advocating D as
original or any such thing, just trying to see where the differences
are.

--
Clayton Stirling Bartholomew
Three Tree Point
P.O. Box 255 Seahurst WA 98062

PS

Don't mention the EN AUTHi reading in the first hand of D to any
feminists. They might try and get some mileage out if it.

Please respond to this PS off list, thank you.




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