[B-Greek] Acts 7:16 - Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor

Schmuel schmuel at nyc.rr.com
Mon Dec 11 09:03:37 EST 2006


Hi Folks,

Steven
>>>Acts 7:16 (KJB)
>>>And were carried over into Sychem,
>>>and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money
>>>of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem.
>>>   I have a follow-up question to a 1999 post.
>>>http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/b-greek/1999-March/004738.html (snip)
>>>    Would there be a more direct or forceful Greek construction than what is in Acts 7:16 for
>>>   "buying from ... " a person.

Barry H
>You seem to be suggesting that the KJV has "buying from" but of course it has "bought for." As it is, the verb is aorist,  here indicating a simple past tense.  Perhaps you could clarify?

Schmuel
Thanks. 
I wasn't asking about the tense, although I should give it properly :-)

The land was "bought for" "a sum of money" and for the sepulchre.  
Of that there is no question here.

The land was "bought from .. the sons of Emmor" in most translations, 
but at least three have, in English, a grammatical form that is less definite 
and could allow for an alternate construction ..  "bought of". 

In English this could allow a sentence where "of the sons of Emmor"
is not simply the object (source) of what was bought but in English it 
could be an oddly-placed phrase, in a telescoped verbal summary, that relates to
another aspect of the  exposition.  Since there are at least three alternate ideas
that have been proposed (Gill, Wesley, others) I didn't go into the details of these
but simply asked how mandated is the Greek.

Carl Conrad
>The text: KAI METETEQHSAN EIS SUCEM KAI ETEQHSAN EN TWi MNHMATI hWi  
>WNHSATO ABRAAM TIMHS ARGURIOU PARA TWN hUIWN hEMMWR EN SUCEM
>
>The verb here is WNEOMAI, regularly middle with sense of "buy" and  
>used with a genitive of price or value. The phrase PARA TWN hUIWN  
>hEMMWR used in this context with the aorist middle WNHSATO can hardly  
>be interpreted otherwise than as an indication of the source from  
>whom the MNHMA was purchased. 

Thanks, this is my question in a nutshell, about which I am asking the
scholarly viewpoint. 

>This verse is the only instance of the  verb WNEOMAI in the Greek
> Bible, but the verb is attested in extra- Biblical Greek literature and other 
>instances of the same  construction WNEOMAI + PARA TINOS with the sense 
>"purchase from  (someone)."

Is there an alternate word that simply means "from" in this context ?
I still am curious about that aspect of the question.  
Or is this basically *the* way to say "purchased from..." ?

>You may look at the Perseus site for other words with "purchase" in  
>the definition, but there is really no doubt regarding the precise  
>sense of the Greek of Acts 7:16 (as Jonathan Robie, I might note,  
>stated in the only reply to the original March 1999 inquiry).

Jonathan gave a one-line reply to a specific alternate construction 
mentioned by John Gill.  Since there are three or more alternate
interps his answer could not be taken as there being no doubt
about the precise sense of the Greek. 

In English I will give an example similar to an alternate readings
where the hearers knowledge of context would influence the interp.

"Haymarket square, the industrial heartland of the Windy City,
once only a little greenmarket, of Sacco and Vanzetti"

There is no doubt that this is an unusual construction, there is
also no doubt that your contextual background helps you to
know that Sacco and Vanzetti were not the kings of cucumbers.

Shalom,
Steven Avery
Queens, NY
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Messianic_Apologetic  




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