[B-Greek] RE: Acts 22:6 Revisited (cont.)
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Apr 14 08:26:32 EDT 2004
At 11:09 AM +0100 4/14/04, D Jongkind wrote:
>Jeffrey Gibson wrote:
>> Here is a list of where the exact expression EGENETO MOI occurs in
>Classical and Hellenistic Literature up through 2 CE.
>>
>> In the light of it, would you still say it is "rare"?
>
>Yes.
>Though I was not exact in my formulation in the first place, I thought that
>within the context of our current discussion it was clear that the EGENETO
>[DE] MOI referred to EGENETO + dative personal pronoun + Accusative with
>infinitive. I admit that I only checked the LXX (and then only with MOI) and
>the NT, but have not found any other examples besides Acts 22:6 and 22:17.
>There must be others for sure and I would love to know where, but one cannot
>solve this with a simple TLG search.
>
>Martin Culy wrote:
>>I am not aware of any arguments for positing a dative absolute construction
>in
>>Koine.
>
>Neither am I. It is just that in Acts 22:17 the two participle constructions
>seem so equivalent:
>
>EGENETO DE - MOI UPOSTREYANTI - KAI - PROSEUCOMENOU MOU -
>
>Yet, probably I am forcing something upon this sentence that is not really
>there.
But they really aren't, and this wouldn't be absolute anyway, because MOI
hUPOSTREYANTI construes with EGENETO, whereas an absolute construction
functions as a whole adverbially with the predicate of the main clause.
PROSEUCOMENOU MOU is absolute, but MOI hUPOSTREYANTI construes directly
with EGENETO.
I still think this construction
>>EGENETO DE MOI POREUOMENWi KAI EGGIZONTI THi DAMASKWi
>>PERI MESHMBRIAN EXAIFNHS EK TOU OURANOU PERIASTRAYAI
>>FWS hIKANON PERI EME
can be considered a passive transformation of something like "I
experience," or "I saw." But in any case the dative participles here
qualify MOI and MOI is essentially part of the predicate; the event took
place with reference to me in a particular context. Although we might
conceivably construe the participial phrase as adjectival and so equivalent
to a relative clause, "who was traveling and approaching Damascus," it
seems to me that the context is presented as part of the event in which the
speaker/Paul says he participated: it did not happen in outer space or
outside of time but at a particular time and place and while the
experiencer is engaged in a particular process. I think of a passage in
T.S. Eliot's last of the Four Quartets:
The moment of the rose and the moment of the yew-tree
Are of equal duration. A people without history
Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern
Of timeless moments. So, while the light fails
On a winter's afternoon, in a secluded chapel
History is now and England.
If it is necessary to decide definitively whether the participial phrase is
adjectival or adverbial, attributive or predicative, descriptive or
circumstantial, then the question becomes: does that participial phrase
tell us WHO the "I" to whom the bright flashing came at noonday near the
end of a journey to Damascus? or does it tell us rather WHERE and WHEN that
event take place for that "I"?
I have now read Professor Culy's article, "The Clue is in the Case:
Distinguishing Adjectival and Adverbial Participles." His proposition is
succinctly stated thus: "Adverbial participles will always be in the
nominative, except in genitive absolute constructions or when they modify
an infinitive." What lends some credence to that proposition is the
distribution of participial forms in the GNT by case; I got the following
breakdown using Accordance:
Total: 6664
Nominative: 4571
Genitive: 739
Dative: 354
Accusative: 941
Vocative: 49
The genitive participles are clearly predominantly in absolute
constructions, but a fair number of the accusative participles are in
constructions with nominal or pronominal objects of verbs of perception
(e.g. Mt 3:16 EIDEN [TO] PNEUMA [TOU] QEOU KATABAINON hWSEI PERISTERAN
[KAI] ERCOMENON EP' AUTON). Generally verbs of perception take indirect
discourse with acc. + ptc., and I think that's the case here. I think that
several of the instances of participles in constructions with nominal or
pronominal datives are also best understood as
adverbial/predicative/circumstantial--because they are essentially part of
the predicate. And for my part, I continue to think that's the better way
of understanding the text of Acts 22:6.
--
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/
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list