[B-Greek] Acts 4:25 (was "Luke 4:25")

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed May 7 08:01:32 EDT 2003


At 7:30 AM -0400 5/7/03, Richard Smith <Rbsads at aol.com> wrote:
>hO TOU PATROS hHMWN DIA PNEUMATOS hAGIOU STOMATOS DAUID PAIDOS SOU EIPWN
>
>After trying to make sense of the verse, I looked at FF Bruce's commentary on
>Acts and Metzger's Textual Commentary, both of which discussed the
>established difficulty with this verse caused by its "primitive corruption."
>
>Attempting to avoid any discussion of textual criticism, and accepting the
>version that is written in my UBS GNT which is evidently supported by the
>earliest texts, I was wondering if it is possible to understand TOU PATROS as
>the genitive object of EIPWN.
>
>"The One who spoke through the Holy Spirit word about our father, David, your
>servant".
>
>I do not think the psalm is attributed to David in the subscript, but it
>might have been considered to have been about David.
>
>Any thoughts on the use of the genitive TOU PATROS hHMWN in this way?

Richard, even when it is granted that this text is exceedingly difficult to
make sense of, I think this suggestion that TOU PATROS hHMWN could be some
sort of genitive object of EIPWN is an impossible solution. Metzger's
commentary on Acts 4:25 should be read by anyone trying to wrestle with
this text prior to any further effort. I guess one doesn't, for whatever
reasons, mark the text of the GNT with an obelus, although it seems to me
that Westcott and Hort, "who marked the passage with an obelus indicating
the presence of a primitive error" (sic Metzger) did something that the
UBS4/NA27 committee ought perhaps also to have done. I'm curious what unser
Bremner Kollege Wilhelm Willker may have to say about this.
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/



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