[B-Greek] APAITEW in Luke 12:20

james no_coldpop at hotpop.com
Wed Sep 24 04:20:29 EDT 2003


Dear listers

First of all, thanks to Prof. Conrad for answering my previous post.

I have another question from Luke 12.
The text is Luke 12:20:

EIPEN DE AUTWi hO QEWS. AFRWN, TAUTHi THi NUKTI THN YUCEN SOU APAITOUSIN APO
SOU. HA DE hHTOIMASAS, TINI ESTAI;

Most of translations I've read translated the clause THN YUCEN SOU
APAITOUSIN APO SOU into the passive, for ex.: "... your life will be
demanded from you" (NIV). Yet APAITOUSIN is in the Active Present indikative
3rd person plural.
I tried looking up to John Nolland's Luke commentary (WBC) and found this
comment:

"... and for APAITOUSIN it is difficult to see Luke using the impersonal
third person plural in place of the passive (the same idiom, i.e., the
request for the return of the soul, is found in Wis 15:8, but with the
passive form of the verb)."

Yet I'm afraid I still don't get his point (looks like my bad english
prevented me), nor enlighten myself in trying to understand the use of
APAITOUSIN here.

So here is my question. How can we understand the use of the active voice
and the plural for APAITEW in this context? Is the use of APAITOUSIN here
idiomatic (so, literally, "... they are demanding your life" without any
particular referencing on who "they" are) or impersonal (but why the
plural?) or is there any other explanation?

several side-questions: can anyone share to me what Luke commentary is their
personal favorite? and perhaps what section of the grammar book should I
come to, to make myself better prepared to deal with (for me)
not-the-usual-Koine-Greek-construction-I-can-handle texts such as the above?
:-)

Thank you very much for your kind attention

James Pantou
Jakarta Barat, Indonesia





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