[B-Greek] Acts 4:12b

Maurice A. O'Sullivan mauros at iol.ie
Sat Nov 22 20:34:31 EST 2003


At 22:09 21/11/2003, you wrote:

>The word "must" doesn't seem to fit well. The Greek
>idea is, I think, "there is no other name...by which
>it is [even] possible to be saved." (I threw in that
>"even" for emphasis.)
>
>Can someone give me a better English translation of
>this?

Newman, B. M., & Nida, E. A. (A handbook on the Acts of the Apostles.

 >> As can be clearly seen, verse 12b is simply an elaboration of the 
statement in verse 12a, stated in a slightly different form <<

followed by:

 >>
For some languages there is a problem involved in two relative clauses 
being attributive to such an expression as no one else in all the world. 
Moreover, these two relative clauses are not coordinate. The first is 
restrictive before the second. In some languages it means that the first 
restriction must be stated as a preposed clause, with the second 
restriction coming in the next clause, for example, “God has given his name 
to men and there is no one else in all the world by whom we can be saved.”

Whose name God has given to men represents another one of the passive 
constructions in Greek in which God is the implicit subject, “name
which 
God has given to men.”

By whom we can be saved in the meaning of the Greek expression “by whom 
(i.e. by which name) it is necessary for us to be saved” (see JB “by which 
we can be saved” and NEB “by which we may receive salvation”). The passive 
expression by whom we can be saved can be shifted to an active “who can 
save us.” <<



Maurice A. O'Sullivan  [ Bray, Ireland ]
mauros at iol.ie





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