[B-Greek] ACTS 18:18 TOIS ADELFOIS
Barry
nebarry at verizon.net
Tue Dec 26 08:16:04 EST 2006
----- Original Message -----
From: "CTCE" <jfs at jfsanders.com>
To: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 26, 2006 7:14 AM
Subject: [B-Greek] ACTS 18:18 TOIS ADELFOIS
> 1) I have reviewed Acts 18:18 after reading Dr. Buth's comments on
> topic/focus. Chinese and Japanese are languages that base their structure
> on topic and commentary on topic-Japanese even grammaticalize the topic.
> I see a topic for Acts 18:18, but no focus, nor even a need for a focus.
> The topic is PAULOS. This helps clarify one part of the verse for me. I
> now can view all the participles that are masculine-singular-nomative and
> verbs that are third person singular as referencing back to the topic.
> This way I am not tempted to associate KEIRAMENOS and EICEN with AKULAS.<<
Ah, functional grammar. New area for me, really, interesting stuff.
However, having never been introduced to the topic, my reasoning would
simply be, "Ok, we have a nominative singular participle and a third person
verb in an extended "sentence." To what does it most likely refer? In
context, it has to be Paul, because it's not about Aquila, but about Paul
(I note, however, that associating it with Aquila is precisely the sort of
mistake that a beginner might make). In other words, by learning the
language well, we start to do this sort of thing intuitively, in a way
similar to how we tend to do it in our own language.
> And one remark: The usage of "brethren" is perhaps a function of the
> community you are a part of. My community uses "brethren" quite often,
> and not as a translation of biblical works. No doubt it is a reflection
> of the KJV, but its usage is normative. If I was to annouce "The brethren
> will meet here", I would not use "brothers", that would sound strange to
> my ears. Yet, I would say "brothers and sisters". So I would suggest not
> all Biblish is Biblish.<<
The reason that you use brethren is that it is a word which has a particular
meaning in your socio-linguistic context. That meaning in turn is there
because of the long standing use of the KJV... But should we use such
idiomatic references in making de novo translations? Now that's a question
beyond B-Greek's scope, I should think...
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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