Lk 1:64 PARACRHMA
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Sep 13 08:23:48 EDT 2002
Englished from the French original message and forwarded to B-Greek on
behalf of Mme Chabert d'Hyères:
At 8:31 AM -0400 9/12/02, Carl W. Conrad wrote:
> I don't find this quite convincing. While it is true that PARACRHMA seems
> to be a preferred Lucan adverb (17 of the 18 instances in the GNT are to be
> found in the gospel of Luke and in Acts, the single other instance in Mt
> 21:19), I think this is a stylistic preference, nor am I convinced that we
> should view the usage of PARACRHMA here as a distinct Lucan association of
> it with healings. While several of the usages in Luke's gospel are indeed
> associated with divine intervention. Louw & Nida note a number of
> synonymous adverbs used thus (7.113 AIFNIDIOS, EXAIFNHS, EXAPINA, EXAUTHS,
> AFNW, ARTI, PARACRHMA) and comments: "pertaining to an extremely short
> period of time between a previous state or event and a subsequent state or
> event - 'suddenly, at once, immediately' (in a number of contexts there is
> the implication of unexpectedness, but this seems to be a derivative of the
> context as a whole and not a part of the meaning of the lexical items)."
> Moreover, perhaps I have overlooked something, but I think that the
> positioning of PARACRHMA in the "critical text" of NA27/USB4 is not less
> expressive of the miraculous nature of Zacharias' recovery of speech than
> the positioning in D05. Perhaps this is a difference of opinion, but remain
> content with my original understanding as indicated above.
It is indeed useful to compare with the use of the synonyms; and Luke uses
EUQEWS as frequently in his gospel as he does PARACRHMA. Since PARACRHMA
and the corresponding Hebrew "pitôm" are used of the same events, I checked
to see whether there were rabbinical comments on the matter. My
investigations have been limited thus far to Rashi, who is laconic on
Numbers 12:4.
What were people astonished by in Lk 1:63?
- According to NA27/USB4 they were astonished because that Zacharias wrote
the name of John which means: "God makes grace." Were they astonished at
the fact that God makes grace? Probably not; rather, they seemed to dispute
the paternal authority of Zacharias.
- According to D05 they were astonished that Zacharias recovered his speech
at the very moment in which he wrote the name of John = "God makes grace."
They were astonished--were filled with wonder by seeing the grace granted
to Zacharias, IMMEDIATELY (PARACRHMA).
Isn't it a pity that this reading of Codex Bezae D05 isn't indicated by
Bibles in their notes?
Sylvie Chabert d'Hyères
http://bezae.ifrance.com
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