Acts 9:4 and Luke 10:41
Bryant J. Williams III
bjwvmw at com-pair.net
Wed Sep 11 12:10:08 EDT 2002
Dear Nichael,
It appears to be a Semitic way of emphasis especially when the person being spoken to is in
shock or is in an extreme state of concentration, so the double use of the name would be used to
get the attention of the one being addressed. I would think that it would apply also to AMHN,
AMHN. Furthermore, I use the double name address occasionally when I have to speak calmly (?) to
my son (11) or daughter (15); or when my wife addresses me (Don't go there :-))).
En Xpistw,
Rev. Bryant J. Williams III
----- Original Message -----
From: "Nichael Cramer" <nichael at sover.net>
To: "Biblical Greek" <b-greek at franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2002 8:14 AM
Subject: [b-greek] Acts 9:4 and Luke 10:41
> Greetings
>
> The following is not, perhaps, a Greek question per
> se; but I would interested in gaining the insights of this
> group on a question I've wondered about for some time.
>
> Many introductory texts on Form Criticism give, as an example,
> the use of the "double summons" as one of the markers for various
> types of theophanies, epiphanies and other appearances of --or
> calls by-- divine beings.
>
> A couple of examples from the HB:
>
> "But the angel of Lord called to him and
> said 'Abraham, Abraham'..." [Gen 22.11]
>
> "God spoke to Israel in visions of the night,
> and said, 'Jacob, Jacob'..." [Gen 46.2]
>
> Now, examples of such an apparent "double summon" appear
> twice in the NT. The most famous is in Acts 9:4 (initiating
> the conversion of Paul):
>
> "He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him,
> 'Saul, Saul, who do you persecute me?"
>
> This clearly fits into the model above. (We might note that
> is perhaps interesting that this construct appears to have carried
> over from the Hebrew. [To those more expert than I: Are there
> other, extra-biblical examples of this formula in such a context,
> in Greek?])
>
> The other example from the NT, occurs in Luke 10:41
> (during the story of Martha and Mary):
> "But the Lord answered and said unto her, 'Martha, Martha,
> thou art anxious and troubled about many things'."[Lk 10:41]
>
> To state the obvious, it less easy to see how this fits into
> the pattern above. Not least of all, perhaps, because Jesus
> is still "earthly" at this point[*].
>
> So, I suppose the question is: Is this duplication of the name
> in this instance simply coincidence? Or is something more
> subtle going on here (perhaps unrelated to the FC model)?
>
> Thanks
> Nichael
>
> [* OTOH, it is perhaps easy for a modern ear to hear this with
> Jesus shaking his head in exasperation and tsk-ing: "Martha,
> Martha, Martha..." But this seems, at best, unlikely.]
>
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