[B-Greek] ACTS 18:18 TOIS ADELFOIS
CTCE
jfs at jfsanders.com
Mon Dec 25 01:50:43 EST 2006
It is appears these postings have veered from attempting to understand the association of the dative in Acts 18:18 to a theory of composition.
If there is no objection, I would like to return to the original query.
Given:
ACTS 18:18 hO DE PAULOS ETI PROSMEINAS hHMERAS hIKANAS TOIS ADELFOIS APOTAXAMENOS EXEPLEI EIS THN SURIAN, KAI SUN AUTWi PRISKILLA KAI AKULAS, KEIRAMENOS EN KEGCREAIS THN KEFALHN, EICEN GAR EUCHN.
As I understood the two options presented set forth, the sense of the meanings would be:
1) But Paul yet remaining sufficient days with the brethren, leaving (Paul understood by construction of the participle, from the brethren by placing adjacent to the dative) sailed to Syria, etc.
2) But Paul yet remaining sufficient days, leaving the brethren sailed to Syria, etc.
I had to changed the position of the dative in 2) because the English does not have the flexibility of Greek.
I am not looking for debate, but understanding. I live in China, I do not have at my disposal any Greek texts, I cannot procure them, Amazon (nor anyone else) delivers to China. In addition, there are restrictions on importing materials that are connected or appear to be connected to religion. So far, this is not a problem, the internet has many resources.
To return to the question, for those who prefer 2), what grammatical or lexical signals in the language commend this reading?
I have a similiar question with Luke 1:3,
EDOXE KAMOI PARHKOLOUQHKOTI ANWQEN PASIN AKRIBWS KAQEXHS SOI GRAYAI KRATISTE QEOFILE.
Most translators that I have seen assoicate KAQEXHS with the verbal form GRAYAI rather than with PARHKOLOUQHKOTI.
I presume that if we paused after AKRIBWS, then the assoication with "to write" is natural, but if we paused after KAQEXHS, then we would assoicate it with "haveing followed". Is that what we are doing in ACTS 18:18, we are each supplying our own pauses where we think fit?
With all the native speakers dead, that perhaps is all we can do. Anyway, give me some help here for those who prefer the second reading.
John Sanders
Suzhou, China
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list