[B-Greek] Acts 16,32 & 34
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Mar 31 16:56:35 EST 2004
At 12:42 PM -0800 3/31/04, Barbara D. Colt wrote:
>On 31 Mar 2004 at 10:55, Mitch Larramore wrote:
>
>> Waldo wrote:
>>
>> > Verse 31 should be understood as having compound
>> > subjects, the jailer and his household. The singular
>> > imperative to believe does not exclude the
>> > household, but is rather a way of continuing the
>> > assumption that Paul first began to speak to the
>> > jailer while he was on duty (and the jailer's
>> > household was elsewhere, i.e., at home), and that
>> > the household comes into focus AFTER the jailer
>> > takes Paul and Silas to his house.
>>
>> Text:
>>
>> hOI DE EIPAN, PISTEUSON EPI TON KURION IHSOUN, KAI
>> SWQHSHi SU KAI hO OIKOS SOU
>>
>> Could one also take hO OIKOS SOU, since it is
>> grammatically singular as well, as the subject of PISTEUSON?
>>
>I suspect something rather hard for modern Americans to imagine but
>common in a society where the father was the legal head of household--
>The household head decided and that was that. Though I suppose that
>if anyone had expressed any objection (not likely), Peter would not
>have baptized that one.
That may well be the case, although we'd like to think that coming to faith
is a free choice of individuals; it is somewhat akin to the principle
agreed upon at the Peace of Augsburg which ended the Thirty Years War in
Europe in 1555: CUIUS REGIO EIUS RELIGIO, which means essentially that the
religious persuasion of a prince (Protestant or Roman Catholic) determines
that of the people of his principality. If interested, one might consult
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuius_regio_eius_religio
--
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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