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

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Mar 9 17:39:52 EST 2005


At 4:43 PM -0500 3/9/05, Jim West wrote:
>Randy Leedy wrote:
>
>>And I'm not
>>sure why a Medieval Greek's sense that the verb can be transitive should
>>be thrown out as irrelevant just because of this time period. Do
>>Medievals typically manifest incompentence on the grammatical mechanics
>>of Koine?
>>
>The point is that medieval greek texts are not Koine greek texts.  To
>equate the grammar of the two is to equate modern American English
>grammar with Shakesperean grammar.

A curious argument this, seeming akin to the notion that Biblical Koine is
a unique and sacred language, different from the Greek spoken and written
by secular writers at the same time as it is different from the Greek
spoken and written before or after. My understanding of what Stephen
Carlson reported yesterday was that it was Byzantine lexicographers that
glossed the Biblical Greek EXESTAKENAI as transitive active, not that
Byzantine writers were writing EXESTAKENAI and using it as transitive
active. If Byzantine scholars could not understand the Biblical Greek text,
it seems wondrous indeed that we moderns, who are NOT native speakers of
Biblical Koine NOR of Byzantine Greek, should ever hope to understand
Biblical Koine.
-- 

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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