[B-Greek] AMFI + accusative
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Dec 8 07:54:04 EST 2004
At 6:09 AM -0500 12/8/04, Carl W. Conrad wrote:
>Message from a new subscriber: I'm forwarding it after making a couple
>changes to bring this into conformity with list protocol: transcription and
>addition of a full-name signature.
>
>Date: Tue, 7 Dec 2004 22:08:04 -0800 (PST)
>Forwarded for: Bogdan Bucur <lenesen at yahoo.com>
>Subject: amphi + Acc
>To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
>
>Hi,
>
>I just discovered B-Greek. Just wonderful! Here's also
>my (first) question. Did the use of hOI AMFI
>followed by accusative evolve from "those around/the
>followers of somebody" to simply having no semantic
>content at all in the Roman era? In other words, can
>hOI AMFI A, B, C" come to mean simply "A, B, C"?
Actually AMFI doesn't appear in the GNT except as a prefix (e.g. AMFIBALLW,
AMFIENNUMI), but PERI is a GNT preposition and functions in much the same
way as does AMFI and has a similar, if not quite identical, sense: with the
accusative PERI means "around" or "surrounding" or "in the entourage of."
Normally AMFI + acc. of person's name will refer to either the entourage of
that person (e.g. a persons companions or family-members) but it may come
to be a way of indicating a person or group of persons including the one
named in the accusative. Here's the relevant entry in BDAG, s.v. PERI
2.a.Delta:
============
d. of persons who are standing, sitting, working or staying close
to someone OCLON PERI AUTON Mt 8:18; cp. Mk 9:14. TOUS PERI AUTON KUKLWi
KAQHMENOUS Mk 3:34; cp. vs. 32. hOI PERI AUTON those about him, his
followers Mk 4:10; Lk 22:49. The central person in the group can be
included: hOI PERI PAULON Paul and his companions Ac 13:13; 21:8 v.l. hOI
PERI TON PETRON Peter and those with him short ending of Mark; GHb 356,
38f= ISm 3:2; cp. GHb 22, 39 (Pla., Thu., X.; Diod. S. 11, 40, 3; 11, 61, 3
hOI PERI TON KIMWNA = Cimon and his men; ins, pap; 2 Macc 1:33; 8:30; 4
Macc 2:19; JosAs 26:5; Jos., Bell. 5, 10, Ant. 18, 354 al.; Tat. 36, 1 al.;
B-D-F §228; Rob. 620). hOI PERI TON KENTURIWNA the centurion and his men
GPt 11:45. PROS TAS PERI MARQAN KAI MARIAM J 11:19 v.l. prob. means only
the two sisters to Martha and Mary (cp. Phalaris, Ep. 136; Polyb. 4, 36, 6;
21, 11, 2; Diod. S. 1, 16, 1; 1, 37, 3; 16, 85, 2 hOI PERI CARHTA KAI
LUSIKLEA=Chares and Lysicles [are made generals]; Plut., Tib. Gracch. 825
[2, 3] hOI PERI DROUSON=DROUSOS, Pyrrh. 395 [20, 1] hOI PERI GAION
FABRIKION = GAIOS FABRIKIOS; Diog. L. 2, 43 hOI PERI AISCULON = Aeschylus;
2, 105; EpArist 51; Philo, Vi. Cont. 15; Jos., Ant. 13, 187; 15, 370, C.
Ap. 1, 17). hOI PERI TON PAULON Ac 27:1a v.l.=PAULOS vs. 1b.
===========
So I guess that, insofar as the usage of PERI runs parallel to that of
AMFI, then yes, hOI AMFI A, B, C can come to mean simply "A,B,C." And a
glance at the LSJ entry on AMFI shows some instances of it.
--
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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