[B-Greek] EXESTAKENAI in Acts 8:11: transitive orintransitive?

Iver Larsen ialarsen at multitechweb.com
Wed Mar 9 00:31:05 EST 2005


>
> Yes, Carl, your number 1 suggestion of hUMAS as subject is what I had in
> mind for the intransitive sense, since in that case hUMAS could not be
> object. That's the way I'd be inclined to read it if there weren't such
> a strong consensus of versions going the other way, seeming to me to fly
> in the face of the usual intransitive usage of hISTHMI in the perfect.
>
> You mention to absence of perfect middle/passives. There are a couple
> of occurrences in the LXX of uncompounded hISTHMI in this form
> (Judges[A] 6:31 and Daniel 5:1), and 18 others using various compounds,
> according to BibleWorks morphology.
>
> The -AKENAI form of the perfect active infin is also unparalleled in
> Biblical Greek as far as I can find; the scribes didn't seem to balk at
> it enough for a variant to make it into the NA apparatus, though. So it
> is a bit of a puzzle. I suppose your suggestion of a causative active of
> EXISTANW is as good a guess as any; at least better than anything I've
> come up with other than that the English translators just missed
> something. But I'm not comfortable thinking that I got something right
> that nearly all the translators missed, at least not without some pretty
> careful consideration of what may justify their rendering, and your
> suggestion perhaps does just that. I'll leave the jury out for a while,
> though, to see whether any clearer explanations come in.
>
> Randy

Hi, Randy,

I think it is wise to be reluctant to assume that all the English
translations have missed it.

May I suggest you look at the following:

Lk 8:56 KAI EXESTHSAN hOI GONEIS AUTHS  - her parents were amazed
Lk 24:22 ALLA KAI GUNAIKES TINES EX hHMWN EXESTHSAN hHMAS - but even some
women among us amazed us

When the aorist and present active  can be used either intransitively or
transitively, it seems reasonable that the same can apply to the perfect
active.

The reason that most translators take the transitive sense in 8:11 is that
translators are very much guided by context. In 8:9, the present participle
of the verb is clearly transitive with the same logical subject (Simon) and
the object being the people of Samaria.

Having said that, both the transitive and the intransitive sense would be
possible in v. 11 as Carl said. It doesn't make any difference to the
meaning, and is not significant for idiomatic translations. It is mainly
because of 8:9 that I expect the verb to be used transitively in v. 11, too.

So, although I think the transitive intention is more likely, I wouldn't
fault a translation that decided to translate it as intransitive, e.g.

REB: They listened because they had for so long been captivated by his
magic.

Iver Larsen




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