[B-Greek] ACTS 18:18 TOIS ADELFOIS
Barry
nebarry at verizon.net
Mon Dec 25 08:10:15 EST 2006
----- Original Message -----
From: "CTCE" <jfs at jfsanders.com>
To: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, December 25, 2006 1:50 AM
Subject: [B-Greek] ACTS 18:18 TOIS ADELFOIS
> 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.
You know, this happens sometimes in conversations -- the original point gets
forgotten. See below:
> 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?<<
Actually, John, I think the answer is quite simple: the use of the dative
with the middle APOTASSOMAI to mean "take one's leave of, bid farewell to"
is quite well attested, even outside the NT. When we have a normal
construction of this nature, the "extreme prejudice" is to read it that way.
There is really no ambiguity here.
BTW, both my daughters are adopted from China, and I spent some months as
the "English" pastor of a Chinese church, so I have some familiarity with
your situation there. Westerners have a much easier time of it than Chinese
citizens, but you still have to be careful.
> 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.
Here, you are talking about what adverb is modifying what. I think the end
result is really the same. If he wrote to them having pursued everything
accurately and in order, then the implication would be that he is writing
everything accurately and in order. Another possibility is that both
AKRIBWS and KAQEXHS be taken with GRAYAI. Taking AKRIBWS with
PARHKOLOUQHKOTI and AKRIBWS with GRAYAI pleases my sense of balance, but
that's kind of subjective. And to answer your last question, it's not quite
as arbitrary as that -- often there are clues, such as certain particles,
preferred word order (which in Greek must be determined on a case by case
basis as part of the author's style), which help us as translators to
capture proper emphasis and where to place a comma. A big part of it is
understanding the context. Here, the placement of the adverbs is
potentially ambiguous. A more literal translation: "It seemed best to me
having followed everything accurately in order to write to you..." So which
is it supposed to be? I think perhaps the suggestion I made in an earlier
post, that the precise placement of each modifier was less important for the
writer than the overall effect of the sentence, may be in order here... :)
N.E. Barry Hofstetter
Faculty Member, CUTS
http://www.cuts.edu
Classics Instructor, The American Academy
http://theamericanacademy.net
And me:
http://mysite.verizon.net
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