[B-Greek] Acts 2:29a

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Sep 15 05:35:01 EDT 2004


At 11:55 PM -0400 9/14/06, George F. Somsel wrote:
>On Tue, 14 Sep 2004 19:13:38 -0700 (PDT) Mitch Larramore
><mitchlarramore at yahoo.com> writes:
>>
>> ANDRES ADELFOI, EXON EIPEIN META PARRHSIAS PROS hUMAS
>> PERI TOU PATRIARCOU DAUID.....
>>
>> Which of the following options is acceptable Greek:
>>
>> 1. EXON is Imperatival Participle by itself "Permit
>> (me) to speak..."
>>
>> 2. For EXON to be Imperatival, assume ESTW is omitted
>> from ESTW EXON (Permit me to speak...)
>>
>> 3. What is the sense if ESTIN is assumed omitted (May
>> I speak?...)
>_____________
>
>Once again I will repeat.  The lexicon is a good place to start.  BGAD
>has
>
>4. The ptc. of E. is ECON; by the addition of the copula, which, however,
>must oft. be understood (Ac 2:29; 2 Cor 12:4, as Isaeus 6, 50; Jos., Ant.
>8, 404), **** it comes to mean the same as ECESTIN:**** E. (ESTIN) w.
>pres. inf. foll. ISm 8:2; w. aor. inf. foll. Ac 2:29; foll. by dat. of
>the pers. and aor. inf. (Esth 4:2; Jos., Ant. 20, 202)Mt 12:4. W. dat.,
>and inf. to be supplied MH EINAI E. AUTWi he had no authority MPol 12:2.
>M-M. B. 647.*
>
>Note the starred section.  There is no need to resort to an "imperatival
>participle."  All it simply means is "It is permitted / possible /
>proper" to speak" with EIPEIN being the subject of the impersonal verb.
>
>If you don't already have one, get a good lexicon.  In NT studies THIS
>MEANS get BDAG.  Go, sell your first-born child and buy one.

Not a matter of disagreement with George here, but a clarification for the
sake of anyone who is confused by George's transliteration: George is using
C for Xi, whereas our standard transliteration scheme tends to prefer X for
Xi, C for Chi. This can be particularly confusing if one thinks in terms of
C for Chi and supposes that George's citation from BDAG is for ECW "have"
rather than for EXESTI "it is possible."

What our FAQ says about this is:

	'(5) Xi and Chi:  There being no single Roman letter for "Xi"
	other than X, the "look-alike" use of X for "Chi" is confusing,
	though some use it.  And some seem to like to use C for "Sigma."
	Since S is otherwise unused, and poses no confusion whatever,
	using C for "Sigma" makes for problems in decoding back to Greek,
	especially since it is the only letter available for "Chi"
	(unless X is used, thus posing a problem for "Xi").  And
	occasionally someone uses P for "Rho", making problems for how to
	represent "Pi".'
-- 

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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