[B-Greek] ACTS 18:18 TOIS ADELFOIS
Iver Larsen
iver_larsen at sil.org
Fri Dec 22 10:23:37 EST 2006
----- Original Message -----
From: "Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad2 at mac.com>
> Obviously there are two possibilities here, and I certainly wouldn't want to
> assert my preference dogmatically. But (a) I'm not really impressed by
> the significance of the position of TOIS ADELFOIS in Acts 18:18 preceding
> the participle APOTAXAMENOS (the other GNT instances show the verb
> APOTASSOMAI at the beginning of its clause or verbal phrase);
To my view what is relevant here is not the position of the verb in its clause but the relative
position of the verb vis-a-vis its dative object. Maybe I should write the 5 clauses here (leaving
aside 18:18). When the verb is a participle, it is a dependent clause (verbal phrase):
Mk 6:46 APOTAXAMENOS AUTOIS
Lk 9:61 APOTAXASQAI TOIS EIS TON OIKON MOU
Lk 14:33 hOS OUK APOTASSETAI PASIN TOIS hEATOU hUPARCOUSIN
Act 18:21 ALLA APOTAXAMENOS
2 Cor 2:13 ALLA APOTAXAMENOS AUTOIS
Apart from conjunctions, relative pronoun and negative particle, all of these clauses contain only
the verb and an optional dative object.
One thing that I hinted at but did not make clear is that while APOTASSW may have an optional dative
object, PROSMENW requires an object in the dative, at least in the NT. There may be
a few cases in other literature where it occurs without object. There is one in the LXX at Jdg 3:25
where the location is easily inferred from the previous words. But the pattern for PROSMENW is for
the verb to be followed by a dative object.
PROSMENW occurs in the following places in the GNT:
Mat 15:32 hOTI HDH hHMERAI TREIS PROSMENOUSIN MOI (Also Mrk 8:2)
Act 11:23 KAI PAREKALEI PANTAS THi PROQESEI THS KARDIAS PROSMENEIN TWi KURIWi
Act 13:43 EPEIQON AUTOUS PROSMENEIN THi CARITI TOU QEOU
1 Tim 1:3 KAQWS PAREKALESA SE PROSMEINAI EN EFESWi
1 Tim 5:5 KAI PROSMENEI TAIS DEHSESIN KAI TAIS PROSEUCAIS NUKTOS KAI hHMERAS
PROSMENW means to remain/stay with a person or with a thing/activity or remain in a location. The
object is expressed by a dative or in the case of a location by an EN phrase which is equivalent to
a dative object.
In all of these cases, the dative object for both verbs follow the verb, and this is significant. I
expect it would be possible to move the object in front of the verb, if there was a need to
contrast the object with one or more other potential objects. We just don't have any examples of
this in the NT.
> (b) I note in BDAG as a second meaning of PROSMENW, "to stay on at a
> place beyond some point of time, remain longer, further" and Acts 18:18 is
> cited as an instance. I guess the prefix PROS- here used with the root
> MEN- can yield either of two senses: "stay close by" or "stay additionally."
I don't think "additionally" is a valid sense of the prefix PROS-. This is IMO an example of reading
the context into the lexical item. The verb MENW in itself has a lexical durative aspect. You always
stay with something/someone or at some place for some time.
PROS TOUTOIS as an idiom can mean "in addition to these". It is common in 2 Maccabees, but this is a
special case of the two words together, and does not seem to apply to PROS as used outside this
idiom or to PROS- as a prefix.
BDAG (following BAGD) made an interpretive decision by putting Acts 18:18 under a different sense.
It was caused by not recognizing TOIS ADELFOIS as the object. Also, in adding these time phrases to
the meaning of PROSMENW, I believe they made a mistake. They only give two examples: Acts 18:18 and
1 Tim 1:3.In the case of 1 Tim, the sense of "stay on/remain" comes from -MENW, not from PROS-. The
PROS plus EN phrase indicates the location where he is to remain. In the case of Act 18:18, it is
the word ETI and the phrase hHMERAS hIKANAS that give the continuation and length of the stay, it
doesn't come from PROS.
Let me repeat Act 18:18, since I am deleting the rest:
ACTS 18:18 hO DE PAULOS ETI PROSMEINAS hHMERAS hIKANAS TOIS ADELFOIS APOTAXAMENOS
The PROSMENW indicates a stay of some unspecified time at a place or with some people. The ETI
indicates the extension (yet/still) and hHMERAS hIKANAS is added to give some little explanation of
the length of the stay.
Since this word requires a dative object to follow the verb, that object has to be TOIS ADELFOIS.
So, he stayed on for a considerable number of days with them. After that he said goodbye (to them).
Although APOTAXAMENOS does not have an object (and doesn't need one, cf. Acts 18:21), it is
understood to be the same ADELFOI. To suggest that ADELFOI goes with APOTASSW would necessarily mean
that these "brothers" were contrasted with somebody else that Paul did not say good-bye to, and this
does not make sense to me. That is what fronting the object before he verb signifies.
Now, it would have been possible for Luke to say:
hO DE PAULOS ETI PROSMEINAS hHMERAS hIKANAS EN KORINQWi, APOTAXAMENOS TOIS ADELFOIS
This is approximately what you might get, if you back translated the NET version into Greek (Paul,
after staying many more days in Corinth, said farewell to the brothers). However, this is not the
text we have in Acts 18:18.
> I continue therefore to prefer taking APOTAXAMENOS with TOIS ADELFOIS.
Although you are not fond of word order arguments, you have been known to reconsider, if I am
persistent enough -:)
Iver Larsen
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