Acts 17:6 use of participles

richard smith rbsads at aol.com
Tue Apr 23 21:27:24 EDT 2002



Verse 5  ZHLWSANTES DE hOI IOUDAIOI KAI PROSLABOMENOI TWN AGORAIWN ANDRAS
TINAS P0NEROUS KAI OCLOPOIHSANTES EQORUBOUN THN POLIN KAI EPISTANTES Thi
OIKIAi IASONOS EZHTOUN AUTOUS PROAGAGEIN EIS TON DHMON

For some reason this verse is giving me difficulty with its translation.
Finally it seemed best to understand ZHLWSANTES as adjectival and
PROSLABOMENOI and OCLOPOIHSANTES as temporal adverbs.

The NRSV, however, does not seem to give this nuance to its translation.

My effort in translation so far is as follows:

"But the Jews, who had become filled with jealousy, took up association
with certain degenerate men among the market place idlers and collected a
mob.  Then they started to cause a stir in the city. When they came near
the home of Jason, they began to search for them (Paul and Silas) in order
to take them before the people."

With the NRSV, the Jews become jealous and they are helped by the ruffians
in forming a mob.

NRSV "But the Jews became jealous, and with the help of some ruffians in
the marketplaces they formed a mob and set the city in an uproar.  While
they were searching for Paul and Silas to bring them out to the assembly,
they attacked Jason's house."

If the first participle is adjectival, is it intending to describe the
Jews who as a class had become jealous, or is it intending to describe
those of the Jews who had become jealous? Is the participle descriptive of
a whole class or does it identify and separate the Jews who became jealous
from the Jews who did not become jealous?

This question may be asking if the participle is predicative or
attributive. (I think that I am beginning to come to a sense of their
basic semantic difference.) And if my question is whether predicative or
attributive, then the anarthrous position would provide an answer.

(Of course the first participle might be adverbial - The Jews, after they
became jealous.)

Anyway the context may decide the matter of whether the jealous Jews were
a specific group of Jews or the whole class of Jews, by the preceding
reference specifically to Hellenistic proselytes to Judaism and leading
women.

Two other questions regarding the verse.

Are the next 2 participles (PROSLABOMENOI and OCLOPOIHSANTES) best
understood as temporal? The NRSV seems to render PROSLABOMENOI as means
and treats OCLOPOIHSANTES with increased force as a finite verb that is
modified by PROSLABOMENOI.  This increased force seems to give that
participle equal prominence with EQORUBOUN as the co-main verb rather that
as a temporal marker for the main verb. It is as if forming the mob and
stirring the city are equal in force.  In fact the NRSV rendering in my
mind gives more force to forming the mob than to causing the stir.

Additionally, the NRSV seems to imply that the Jews together with the
ruffians formed a mob. The Greek seems to imply to me that the Jews made
the extra effort necessary to associate with ruffians and to form a mob,
with the focused intent to stir up the city.

The point I am trying to ask may be too subtle, or perhaps plain wrong. 

But any help with these questions will help me gain in understanding how
to treat participles.

The last question regarding this verse concerns the NRSV translation of
EPISANTES THi OIKIAi IASONOS EZHTOUN AUTOUS PROAGAGEIN EIS TON DHMON.

The NRSV translates, "While they were searching for Paul and Silas to
bring them out to the assembly, they attacked Jason's house."

It seems to me that the NRSV translators have switched the main verb with
the participle, and by doing so have changed the nuance of the reading,
however slightly.

Might there be a different sense if the sentence were translated, "After
they came near Jason's house, they (the mob just now formed) began
searching for them in order to take them before the people."

(I have Gingrich's Short Lexicon, which defines EFISTHMI as "attack" in
this one instance of Acts 17:5, but it seems to me to make more sense to
keep the word's basic meaning of "come near".)

Again, all of these points may be overly subtle or even wrong. I am sure
that they are much ado about nothing, but it will help me even to know if
that is the case.


Thanks for your patience,

Richard Smith
Chattanooga, TN




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