GEbionites and feminine participle
Eric S. Weiss
eweiss at gte.net
Tue Aug 6 17:36:19 EDT 2002
Not quite a Biblical text, but ...
... An article at the following Web page:
http://www.bible.org/docs/theology/christ/thejesusgroup/jesusbaptism.htm
discusses Jesus's baptism by John. Citing extracanonical witnesses to the
Gospel accounts, the Gospel according to the Ebionites is included as
follows (about 1/8 of the way down the page):
"Another extracanonical source for Jesus baptism is the Gospel according
to the Ebionites, which is quoted by Epiphanius (Panarion 30.13.79). The
section relevant to Jesus baptism is cited as GEbion §4:11:"
What caught my attention was verse 2, which reads:
"2. KAI hWS ANHLQEN APO TOU hUDATOS, HNOIGHSAN hOI OURANOI KAI EIDEN TO
PNEUMA TO hAGION EN EIDEI PERISTERAS, KATELQOUSHS KAI EISELQOUSHS EIS
AUTON."
The English translation of this verse is given as:
"2 And when he ascended from the water the heavens opened and he saw the
Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descending and coming to him."
The participles - KATELQOUSHS KAI EISELQOUSHS - are feminine, agreeing in
gender and case with PERISTERAS. Matthew's and Mark's accounts have the
participles agreeing with PNEUMA.
I.e., "... and he saw the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, [a dove]
descending and coming to him."
1) Is this an example of (rare?) attraction (both in case and gender) of
the participle to the case of the closest noun, or 2) did the author
deliberately mean to write it this way to even more literally describe the
dovelike appearance of the Holy Spirit's entering of Jesus, or 3) did the
author make a grammatical error? What would best explain this text?
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