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

Iver Larsen ialarsen at multitechweb.com
Fri Mar 11 11:31:45 EST 2005


> [mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of Randy Leedy
> Sent: 10. marts 2005 00:00
>
> Thanks to Stephen Carlson and Iver Larsen for helpful input. The
> quotations from the medieval sources seem particularly helpful toward
> establishing the legitimacy of a transitive sense. And I appreciate
> seeing the REB's rendering.
>
> I'm not quite ready to base an understanding of the Perfect on what the
> Aorist does, though, especially given the strong pattern of a transitive
> first aorist and intransitive 2nd aorist. Also, I do not find any
> INtransitive Present actives in the NT, so I'm not sure a claim that the
> Present active can be transitive or intransitive can stand up, at least
> not for the NT (I do recall that Liddell & Scott indicated that the
> Present active can be transitive, so I assume the claim can be defended
> across the broader literature, though I wonder what the chronological
> distribution may be).

Hi, Randy,

Now that I have had a bit of time to look at this more closely, I confess
that my other comment was too hastily written. I was partly confused by my
own two examples:

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

What confused me was that there is no difference in third person plural
between 1. and 2. aorist of this verb. So, it seems likely from context that
the first instance is the intransitive 2. aorist and the second is the
transitive 1. aorist.
You are also correct that there doesn't seem to be any present active
intransitives, at least not in the Biblical data.

Why BAGD lists Acts 8:11 under the transitive usage, but still lists the
perfect forms under intransitive is not clear to me. Maybe that is one
reason why many translations have opted for the transitive sense here? Or
they followed the lead of the KJV? I am now inclined to agree with you that
it is most likely intended to be intransitive with AUTOUS being subject in
spite of the medieval evidence and many translations.

Thanks for educating me,

Iver Larsen




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