[B-Greek] ACTS 18:18 TOIS ADELFOIS
George F Somsel
gfsomsel at yahoo.com
Sat Dec 23 12:27:43 EST 2006
Iver,
It would seem that you fail to recognize that there is more than one version of the OT in Greek. The Judges passage is in B while the Tobit passage is in Sinaiticus. Whether you happen to have it in your copy is immaterial since it is present in other versions and is not a corruption which is unintelligible. It represents a valid Greek usage. Therefore, PROSMENW does NOT require a dative following. I'm making no judgment regarding whether TOIS ADELFOIS construes with PROSMENW or with APOTASSW. My position is simply that it cannot be determined by the means you wish to use.
george
gfsomsel
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----- Original Message ----
From: Iver Larsen <iver_larsen at sil.org>
To: greek <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 23, 2006 10:15:52 AM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] ACTS 18:18 TOIS ADELFOIS
----- Original Message -----
From: "George F Somsel" <gfsomsel at yahoo.com>
OK, if you wish to consider EN EFESWi as the dative, what do you do with these?
Jdg 3.25
KAI PROSEMEINAN AISXUNOMENOI, KAI IDOU OUK HN hO ANOIGWN TAS QURAS TOU hUPERWiOU, KAI ELABON THN
KLEIDA KAI HNOICAN, KAI IDOU hO KURIOS AUTWN PEPTWKWS EPI THN GHN TEQNHKWS.
----------------
Iver: I had looked at this passage and mentioned that the location (EKEI) would be understood from
the immediately preceding words. The Greek of this version of the LXX is somewhat different from the
meaning of the Hebrew, so I am not sure whether this particular LXX version has been damaged. I am
far from being a LXX specialist. The text is suspect, since the printed version I have of the LXX is
different and corresponds better to the Hebrew, saying KAI hUPEMEINAN hEWS hHSCUNONTO.
------------------
Tob 2.2
KAI PARETEQH MOI hH TRAPEZA, KAI PARETEQH MOI OYARIA PLEIONA, KAI EIPA TWi TWBIA TWi hUIWi MOU
PAIDION, BADIZE KAI hON AN hEURHiS PTWXON TWN ADELFWN hHMWN EK NINEUHTWN AIXMALWTWN, hOS MEMNHTAI EN
hOLHi KARDIA AUTOU, KAI AGAGE AUTON KAI FAGETAI KOINWS MET' EMOU, KAI IDE PROSMENW SE, PAIDION,
MEXRI TOU SE ELQEIN.
------------------
Iver: The printed version of the LXX that I have is different. There I see MENW SE instead of
PROSMENW SE, and this makes sense and is listed in BAGD under MENW:
2. trans. wait for, await-a. of pers.: wait for someone who is arriving (Hom.; Thu. 4, 124, 4; X.,
An. 4, 4, 20; Pla., Leg. 8 p. 833c; Polyb. 4, 8, 4; Tob 2:2 BA; 2 Macc 7:30; Jos., Ant. 13, 19)
TINA.
It is highly unusual to have PROSMENW followed by an accusative object. With MENW that is
possible, although not common.
I am reluctant to admit these two texts into the corpus because of the uncertainty of which version
is correct. I would much rather see texts from Hellenistic Greek outside the Bible.
Concerning the other 2 places with PROSMENW in the LXX, the Wis 3:9 has a dative complement (object)
as expected, whereas the 3 Mac 7:17 looks like a mixture with both a locative EN phrase and an
accusative object (EN hHi PROSEMEINAN AUTOUS hO STOLOS ... hHMERAS hEPTA - in which (city) the fleet
remained waiting for them for seven days)
I am not ready to say that PROSMENW absolutely must have a dative object every time (or EN phrase as
complement in the case of remaining in a location), but the verb seems incomplete without such a
complement. Only if the complement can easily be supplied from the immediately preceding context,
can it be left out in order not to have unnecessary repetition. And that is not the case in Acts
18:18.
To me, the main argument is the word order, but the significance of word order has generally not
been well understood in traditional Greek studies and is therefore still somewhat controversial.
Iver Larsen
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